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Til  EC 


COLLECTION 


OF  TIIE 


IN'  CHARGE  OF  THE 


SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION, 

WASHINGTON,  I).  C. 


♦ 


BY 

CHARLES  RAU. 


WASHINGTON  CITY: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. 

1876. 


SMITHSONIAN  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  KNOWLEDGE. 
-  287  - - 


THE 

ARCHEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION 


OP  THE 


UNITED  STATES  NATIONAL  MUSEUM, 


IN  CHARGE  OF  THE 


SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION, 

NV ASHIIN GtTOjST,  II.  C. 


CHARLES  RAU. 


WASHINGTON  CITY: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. 

1 8  7  G. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The  author  of  this  work  was  entrusted  with  the  classification  of  the 

Smithsonian  Archaeological  and  Ethnological  Collections  before  they  were 

/ 

transferred  to  Philadelphia,  to  form  a  part  of  the  United  States  Government 
Representation  at  the  International  Exhibition  of  1876. 

While  thus  engaged,  he  found  time  to  prepare  the  following  account,  which, 
though  far  from  being  exhaustive,  will  at  least  serve  to  show  what  ample 
means  the  National  Museum  presents  for  the  study  of  North  American  archae¬ 
ology. 

JOSEPH  HENRY, 

Secretary  S.  I. 

Smithsonian  Institution, 

Washington ,  August ,  1876. 


. 

' 

. 

’ 


. 


. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction 

Stone 


B. 


Flaked  and  chipped  Stone  ........ 

1.  Ilaw  Material  .......... 

2.  Irregular  Flakes  of  Flint,  Obsidian,  etc.,  produced  by  a  single  blow 

3.  Two-edged  narrow  Flakes  of  Obsidian  and  prismatic  Cores  or  Nuclei 

from  which  such  Flakes  have  been  detached  by  pressure 

4.  Pieces  of  Flint,  Quartz,  Obsidian,  etc.,  roughly  flaked,  and  either  repre 

senting  rude  tools,  or  designed  to  be  wrought  into  more  regular  forms 
—  Unfinished  Arrow  and  Spear-heads 

5.  Arrow-heads  .... 

G.  Spear-lieads  .... 

7.  Perforators  .... 

8.  Scrapers  ..... 

9.  Cutting  and  Sawing  Implements 

10.  Dagger-shaped  Implements 

11.  Leaf-shaped  Implements  . 

12.  Large  flat  Implements  of  silicious  material,  usually  ovoid  in  shape,  anc 

sharp  around  the  circumference  (Digging  Tools) 

13.  Large  flat  Implements,  mostly  of  oval  outline,  but  truncated  and  laterally 

notched  at  the  end  opposite  the  working  edge  (Digging  Tools) 

14.  Wedge  or  Celt-shaped  Implements 
Pecked,  ground  and  polished  Stone 

1.  Wedges  or  Celts 

2.  Chisels  .... 

3.  Gouges  .... 

4.  Adzes  .... 

5.  Grooved  Axes  . 

G.  Hammers 

7.  Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapons 

8.  Cutting  Tools  . 

9.  Scraper  and  Spade-like  Implements 

10.  Pendants  and  Sinkers 

11.  Discoidal  Stones  and  Implements  of  kindred  Shape 

1 2.  Pierced  Tablets  and  Boat-shaped  Articles 

13.  Stones  used  in  Grinding  and  Polishing 


PAGE 

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32 
34 


(v) 


Vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

14.  Vessels . 36 

15.  Mortars . 38 

16.  Pestles . 41 

1  / .  Tubes  '  .  .  ...  43 

18.  Pipes  .............  45 

19.  Ornaments  ............  51 

20.  Sculptures . 54 

Copper  ................  59 

Bone  and  Horn . 63 

Shells . 66 

Clay . 73 

Wood . 88 

Supplement  ...............  90 

Appendix  1 . 93 

The  Aboriginal  Modes  of  hafting  Stone  and  Bone  Implements  ....  93 

Appendix  II.  ..............  97 

System  adopted  in  arranging  the  Smithsonian  Collection  illustrative  of  North 

American  Ethnology  ...........  97 

I.  Man,  Objects  relating  to,  . . 97 

II.  Culture,  Objects  relating  to, . 97 

Index . 103 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Fig. 

1. 

Fig. 

2. 

"TT  |  or 

X  1»# 

3. 

Fig. 

4. 

Fig. 

5. 

Fig. 

C. 

Fig. 

7. 

Fig. 

8. 

Fig. 

9. 

Fig. 

10. 

Fig. 

11. 

Fig. 

12. 

Fig. 

13. 

Fig. 

14. 

Fig. 

15. 

Fig. 

16. 

Fig. 

17. 

Fig. 

18. 

J?\rr 

19. 

20. 

Fig. 

21. 

Fig. 

22. 

Fig. 

23. 

Fig. 

24. 

Fig. 

25. 

Fig. 

26. 

Fig. 

27. 

Fig. 

28. 

Fig. 

29. 

Fig. 

30. 

Fig. 

31. 

Fig. 

31a, 

Fig. 

32. 

Fig. 

33. 

Fig. 

34. 

Fig. 

35. 

Fig. 

36. 

Fig. 

37. 

Fig. 

38. 

Fig. 

39. 

Fig. 

40. 

Fig. 

41. 

Objects  of  flaked  and  chipped  Stone. 

Flint  Knife  in  wooden  handle ;  Pai-Utes . 

Obsidian  Knife  ;  Mexico . 

Obsidian  Core ;  Mexico . 

Arrow-head,  leaf-shaped ;  semi-opal;  California  .... 
Arrow-head,  convex-sided,  truncated  base ;  obsidian ;  Mexico 

Arrow-head,  triangular;  jasper;  New  York . 

Arrow-head,  indented  base ;  jasper ;  Oregon . 

Arrow-head,  notched  at  the  sides  near  the  base;  jaspery  agate;  Texas 
Arrow-head,  notched  at  the  sides ;  hornstone ;  Tennessee 
Arrow-head,  notched  at  the  sides  ;  hornstone  ;  Ohio 

Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  flint;  Ohio . 

Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  hornstone;  Pennsylvania  .... 
Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  silicified  wood ;  Ohio  ..... 

Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  hornstone  ;  Ohio . 

Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  quartz ;  District  of  Columbia 

Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  flint ;  Tennessee . 

Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  hornstone ;  Tennessee  .... 
Arrow-head,  stemmed ;  hornstone  ;  Tennessee  .... 
Arrow-head,  barbed  and  stemmed ;  hornstone ;  Tennessee 
Arrow-head,  barbed  and  stemmed ;  semi-opal ;  Oregon  . 

Arrow-head,  barbed  and  stemmed;  semi-opal;  Oregon  . 

Arrow-head,  beveled  on  opposite  sides ;  flint ;  Tennessee 

Arrow-head,  serrated ;  flint;  Oregon . 

Arrow-head,  serrated;  jasper;  Louisiana . 

Arrow-head,  stem  bifurcated ;  jasper ;  Tennessee  .... 
Spear-liead,  convex-sided,  base  truncated ;  chalcedony;  Tennessee 

Spear-head,  concave  base ;  jasper ;  California . 

Spear-head,  notched  near  the  base ;  flint ;  Kentucky  .  . 

Spear-liead,  stemmed ;  quartz  schist ;  Pennsylvania 

Spear-head,  stemmed ;  flint;  New  York . 

Spear-head,  barbed  and  stemmed  ;  milky  quartz;  Louisiana  . 
Spear-head,  with  several  notches  near  the  base  ;  jasper;  Maine 

Perforator,  triangular;  jasper;  Ohio . 

Perforator,  slender,  expanding  opposite  the  point;  jasper;  Oregon 
Perforator,  slender,  broad  base ;  flint;  Missouri  .... 

Perforator,  indented  base ;  flint;  Ohio  ...... 

Perforator,  stemmed ;  hornstone;  Tennessee  ..... 

Perforator,  elongated  leaf-shape ;  semi-opal ;  California  . 

Scraper,  beveled  from  one  side ;  flint;  Texas . 

Scraper,  beveled  from  one  side,  stemmed;  hornstone;  Ohio  . 

Scraper,  made  of  a  broken  arrow-head;  jasper;  Ohio  . 

Scraper,  disc-shaped,  chipped  all  around ;  chalcedony;  Texas 


list  of  illustrations 


•  •  • 

Till 

TAGE 

Fig.  42.  Flake  (knife) ;  jasper ;  Kentucky .  .  .  14 

Fig.  43.  Cutting  Tool,  with  stems  opposite  the  convex  edge;  flint;  California . 14 

Fig.  44.  Cutting  Tool,  sickle-shaped;  jasper;  California . 14 

Fig.  45.  Cutting  Tool,  crescent-shaped ;  lydite;  Pennsylvania . 14 

Fig.  4G.  Cutting  Tool,  arrow-head-shaped ;  jasper ;  Tennessee . 14 

Fig.  47.  Cutting  Tool,  arrow-head-shaped ;  semi-opal;  Georgia . 14 

Fig.  48.  Cutting  Tool,  oval ;  liornstone  ;  Maine . 14 

Fig.  49.  Dagger;  flint;  Alabama . 15 

Fig.  50.  Leaf-shaped  Implement,  pointed  at  one  end;  flint;  Ohio . 15 

Fig.  51.  Leaf-shaped  Implement,  broad,  pointed  at  both  ends  ;  jasper ;  Louisiana  ....  15 

Fig.  52.  Leaf-shaped  Implement,  slender,  pointed  at  both  ends  ;  flint;  Ohio . 15 

Fig.  53.  Leaf-shaped  Implement,  large,  pointed  at  one  end  ;  liornstone  ;  Illinois  ....  15 

Fig.  54.  Large  Implement  of  oval  outline  (digging  tool)  ;  fine-grained  quartzite ;  Tennessee  .  .  1G 

Fig.  54a.  Large  Implement,  with  broad  convex  working  edge,  truncated  at  the  opposite  end  (digging 

tool);  fine-grained  quartzite ;  Illinois . 16 

Fig.  55.  Large  Implement,  oval,  truncated  and  laterally  notched  at  the  end  opposite  the  working 

edge  (digging  tool)  ;  fine-grained  quartzite ;  Illinois . 1G 

Objects  of  pecked,  ground  and  polished  Stone. 

Fig.  5G.  Celt,  small ;  hematite;  Ohio . 17 

Fig.  57.  Celt,  four-sided;  greenstone;  Indiana . 17 

Fig.  58.  Celt,  broad  butt-end ;  syenite;  Illinois . 17 

Fig.  59.  Celt,  battered  butt-end ;  greenstone;  Tennessee . 17 

Fig.  GO.  Celt,  tapering  butt-end ;  indurated  chlorite  slate ;  Tennessee  ....  .17 

Fig.  Gl.  Celt,  expanding  cutting  edge ;  cast;  Louisiana . 17 

Fig.  G2.  Celt,  terminating  in  a  handle  opposite  the  edge ;  greenstone;  North  Carolina  .  .  .  17 

Fig.  G3.  Chisel,  round  in  the  cross-section ;  dioritc;  Ohio .  .  .  19 

Fig.  G4.  Chisel,  four-sided;  lydite;  New  York . 19 

Fig.  G5.  Chisel,  with  handle ;  basaltic  stone ;  Unalaska  Island . 19 

Fig.  GG.  Gouge,  partly  hollowed ;  liornstone;  New  York . 19 

Fig.  G7.  Gouge,  entirely  hollowed ;  argillite;  Pennsylvania . 19 

Fig.  G8.  Adze,  gouge-like ;  greenstone;  Massachusetts . .  19 

Fig.  09.  Adze;  liornstone;  British  Columbia . .  19 

Fig.  70.  IlaftedAdze;  greenstone;  Oregon . 19 

Fig.  71.  IlaftedAdze;  serpentine;  Northwest  Coast . 19 

Fig.  72.  Grooved  Axe,  groove  passing  entirely  around ;  greenstone;  Massachusetts  ...  20 

Fig.  73.  Grooved  Axe,  one  side  flat;  greenstone;  Arizona . 20 

Fig.  74.  Grooved  Axe,  groove  bounded  by  ridges ;  greenstone,  South  Carolina  ....  20 

Fig.  75.  Grooved  Axe,  unusually  long ;  cast;  Wisconsin . 20 

Fig.  7G.  Grooved  Axe,  four-sided ;  greenstone;  Alaska . 20 

Fig.  77.  Grooved  Axe,  narrow  cutting  edge  ;  gray  wacke ;  Pennsylvania . 20 

Fig.  78.  Maul,  grooved ;  granite;  Colorado . 20 

Fig.  79.  llaftedMaul;  quartzite;  Assineboins . 20 

Fig.  80.  Ilammci’-stone,  with  a  depression  on  each  side ;  quartzite;  New  York . 20 

Fig.  81.  Hammer-stone,  with  a  depression  on  each  side ;  quartzite;  Pennsylvania  ....  20 

Fig.  82.  Ilammer-stone;  flint;  Ohio . 20 

Fig.  83.  Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  pick-shaped ;  serpentine;  Virginia . 23 

Fig.  84.  Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  pick-shaped ;  serpentine;  Pennsylvania . 23 

Fig.  85.  Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  pick-shaped ;  slate;  Wisconsin . 23 

Fig.  8G.  Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  pick-shaped  ;  slate;  Indiana . 23 

Fig.  87.  Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  much  curved,  ends  expanding ;  slate;  Pennsylvania  .  .  23 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


IX 


Fig.  38. 
Fig.  89. 
Fig.  90. 
Fig.  91. 
Fig.  92. 
Fig.  93. 
Fig.  91. 
Fig.  95. 
Fig.  9G. 
Fig.  97. 
Fig.  98. 
Fig.  99. 
Fig.  100. 
Fig.  101. 
Fig.  102. 
Fig.  103. 
Fig.  104. 
Fig.  105. 
Fig.  106. 
Fig.  107. 
Fig.  108. 
Fig.  109. 
Fig.  110. 

Fig.  111. 
Fig.  112. 
Fig.  113. 
Fig.  114. 
Fig.  115. 
Fig.  116. 
Fig.  117. 
Fig.  118. 
Fig.  119. 
Fig.  120. 
Fig.  121. 
Fig.  122. 
Fig.  123. 
Fig.  124. 
Fig.  125. 
Fig.  126. 
Fig.  127. 
Fig.  128. 
Fig.  129. 
Fig.  130. 
Fig.  131. 
Fig.  132. 
Fig.  133. 
Fig.  134. 
Fig.  135. 
Fig.  136. 

Fig.  137. 


DrCed  Ceremonial  Weapon,  parts  corresponding  to  edges  strongly  curved ;  cast;  Louisiana 

Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  axe-shaped ;  cast;  Wisconsin . 

Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon  (fragment),  bifurcated ;  slate;  Indiana . 

Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  inwardly  curved  sides  ;  translucent  ferruginous  quartz ;  Indiana 
Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapon,  crooked,  blunt  at  one  end ;  slate;  Indiana  .  .  .  . 

Cutting  Tool,  semi-lunar,  pierced ;  slate;  Pennsylvania . 

Cutting  Tool,  with  lateral  tang ;  hard  red  shale ;  Pennsylvania . 

Cutting  Tool,  with  long  handle ;  cast ;  Indiana . 

Scraper-like  Tool,  semi-circular  edge,  pierced ;  greenstone;  Kentucky  .  .  .  . 

Scraper-like  Tool,  slightly  convex  edge ;  cast;  Arkansas . 

Large  Tool,  with  convex  edge,  the  opposite  end  forming  a  bifurcation  ;  cast ;  South  Carolina 

Spade-like  Implement;  cast;  South  Carolina  . 

Pendant,  nearly  pear-shaped ;  hornblende  rock ;  Ohio . 

Pendant,  nearly  pear-shaped,  grooved  at  one  end ;  hematite ;  Tennessee  .... 

Pendant,  elongated  pear-shape,  perforated  at  one  end ;  amygdaloid ;  Arkansas 

Pendant,  swelling  in  the  middle,  grooved  at  one  end ;  greenstone ;  Ohio  .... 

Pendant,  double  conoid-shape ;  greenstone ;  California  . 

Sinker,  expanding  at  the  upper  end  and  terminating  in  a  knob;  quartzite;  Massachusetts 
Sinker,  pear-shaped,  with  a  knob  at  the  narrower  extremity ;  greenstone;  Massachusetts  . 

Sinker,  globular,  encircled  by  a  groove  ;  granite ;  Rhode  Island . 

Sinker,  nearly  globular,  encircled  by  a  groove ;  potstone ;  Georgia . 

Sinker,  encircled  by  two  grooves  intersecting  each  other ;  talcose  slate ;  Rhode  Island 
Sinker  (?),  of  elongated  shape,  encircled  by  a  groove  and  ornamented  with  incised  lines; 

sandstone ;  Oregon  . 

Sinker,  notched  flat  pebble ;  quartzite ;  Pennsylvania  . . 

Sinker,  notched ;  graywacke;  New  York . 

Sinker,  notched ;  quartzite;  Pennsylvania . 

Sinker,  pierced  in  the  centre ;  micaceous  slate ;  California . 

Sinker,  pierced  obliquely  near  the  circumference  ;  sandstone ;  Ohio . 

Discoidal  Stone,  concave  on  both  sides  ;  ferruginous  quartz ;  Tennessee  .  .  .  . 

Discoidal  Stone,  concave  on  both  sides ;  ferruginous  quartz ;  Tennessee  .  .  .  . 

Discoidal  Stone,  concavities  on  both  sides ;  greenstone  ;  Illinois  . 

Discoidal  Stone,  concave  on  both  sides  and  perforated  in  the  centre;  cast;  Ohio 
Discoidal  Stone,  concave  on  both  sides  and  perforated ;  quartzite ;  Ohio,  .... 

Discoidal  Stone,  flat  on  both  sides  ;  quartzose  stone ;  Georgia . 

Discoidal  Stone,  small,  flat  on  both  sides ;  argillite  ;  Pennsylvania . 

Discoidal  Stone,  lenticular ;  ferruginous  quartz ;  Texas  . 

Club- head-shaped  Stone ;  hornblende  rock ;  California  . 

Club-head-shaped  Stone ;  greenstone ;  California . 

Club-head-shaped  Stone ;  serpentine ;  California . 

Pierced  Tablet,  longer  sides  convex ;  slate ;  New  York . 

Pierced  Tablet,  longer  sides  concave ;  slate;  Pennsylvania;  . 

Pierced  Tablet,  four  sides  curved  inwardly ;  cast ;  Louisiana . 

Pierced  Tablet,  lozenge-shaped ;  slate;  Tennessee  . 

Pierced  Tablet,  pentagonal,  longer  sides  concave ;  slate ;  Tennessee . 

Pierced  Tablet,  longer  sides  concave,  shorter  sides  convex;  slate;  Tennessee 

Irregular  flat  Stone,  showing  several  perforations  ;  potstone ;  Pennsylvania 

Boat-shaped  Object,  solid,  two  perforations ;  slate;  Ohio . 

Boat-shaped  Object,  hollowed,  a  perforation  near  each  end;  greenstone;  Kentucky 

Oval  Pebble,  showing  furrows  radiating  toward  the  circumference;  quartzose  rock;  New 

Jersey  . 

Arrow- shaft-grinder ;  chlorite  slate ;  Massachusetts . • 


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X 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Fig.  138.  Arrow-shaft-grinder ;  compact  chlorite ;  Mexico . 34 

Fig.  139.  Arrow-shaft-grinder;  hornblende  rock ;  Southern  Utah  .......  34 

Fig.  140.  Polisher,  oval,  with  truncated  ends ;  quartzose  rock ;  Indiana . 35 

Tig.  141.  Polisher,  rhomboidal  in  outline ;  cast;  Louisiana . 35 

Fig.  112.  Polisher,  club-shaped;  lydite;  Pennsylvania  . ,  .  .  35 

Fig.  143.  Vessel  of  elongated  shape,  with  projections  at  the  narrower  ends;  potstono;  Massachusetts  3G 

Fig.  144.  Bowl;  potstone ;  Wyoming  ....  3G 

Fig.  145.  Large  Vessel,  nearly  globular,  with  a  narrow  aperture  encircled  by  a  raised  rim;  potstone; 

California . 36 

Fig.  14G.  Large  bowl-shaped  Vessel;  potstone;  California . 3G 

Fig.  147.  Boat-shaped  Vessel ;  potstone;  California . 3G 

Fig.  148.  Bowl ;  serpentine ;  California . 3G 

Fig,  149.  Cup;  sandstone;  California . 36 

Fig.  150.  Round  Plate,  ornamented ;  graywacke  ;  Alabama . 37 

Fig.  151.  Rectangular  Plate,  ornamented ;  graywacke;  Alabama  37 

Fig.  152.  Pierced  Plate ;  potstone;  California . 37 

Fig.  153.  Mortar,  hollowed  boulder ;  sandstone;  California  39 

Fig.  154.  Mortar,  hollowed  boulder;  sandstone;  California . 39 

Fig.  155.  Mortar,  with  projections  on  two  sides ;  sandstone;  California . 39 

Fig.  15G.  Large  Mortar,  tapering  toward  the  bottom ;  sandstone;  California . 39 

Fig.  157.  Small  Mortar,  tapering  toward  the  bottom,  ornamented ;  sandstone;  California  .  .  39 

Fig.  158.  “Metate;”  sandstone;  Utah . 39 

Fig.  159.  Slab  of  granite  with  sandstone  Rubber;  Navajo  Indians . 39 

Fig.  1G0.  Slab  of  sandstone,  showing  irregular  depressions  (“nut-stone”)  ;  Pennsylvania  .  .  40 

Fig.  IGOa.  Slab  of  sandstone,  bearing  cup-shaped  cavities ;  Kentucky . 40 

Fig.  1G1.  Pestle  of  conical  form;  syenite;  California . 42 

Fig.  1G2.  Pestle,  terminating  in  a  knob  at  the  upper  end ;  sandstone;  California  ....  42 
Fig.  1G3.  Pestle,  with  a  small  knob  at  the  upper  extremity ;  sandstone;  California  ...  .42 

Fig.  1G4.  Pestle,  showing  a  ring-like  ridge  below  the  tapering  upper  end ;  sandstone;  California  .  42 

Fig.  1G5.  Pestle,  with  a  knob-like  expanse  at  the  lower  extremity  ;  amygdaloid;  California  .  .  42 

Fig.  1G6.  Pestle  of  cylindrical  form  ;  sandstone;  Rhode  Island . 42 

Fig.  1G7.  Cylindrical  Pestle,  tapering  abruptly  at  the  upper  end ;  compact  greenstone ;  Alaska  .  42 

Fig.  1G8.  Pestle  of  conical  form,  expanding  base ;  greenstone;  Pennsylvania . 42 

Fig.  1G9.  Pestle,  with  expanding  base  and  truncated  upper  end ;  syenite;  Ohio  .  .  .  .  .  42 

Fig.  170.  Pestle,  showing  an  expanding  base  and  a  circular  ridge  below  the  tapering  upper  end ;  green¬ 
stone  ;  British  Columbia  ,....» . 42 

Fig.  171.  Pestle,  with  expanding  base  and  similarly  shaped  upper  extremity ;  silicious  stone;  Wash¬ 
ington  Territory .  42 

Fig.  172.  Pestle,  exhibiting  a  horizontal  handle  which  terminates  in  round  plates ;  greenstone;  Alaska  42 

Fig.  173.  Disc-shaped  Stone,  probably  employed  for  grinding  purposes ;  greenstone;  Georgia  .  .  42 

Fig.  174.  Muller,  conoid-shaped ;  greenstone;  Ohio . 42 

Fig.  175.  Cylindrical  Tube ;  steatite;  Tennessee . 44 

Fig.  17G.  Tube,  encircled  in  the  middle  by  a  raised  ring;  chlorite;  Tennessee . 44 

Fig.  177.  Pipe,  showing  a  round  expanding  bowl  on  a  slightly  curved  base  (“mound-pipe”);  cast; 

Ohio  . 47 

Fig.  178.  Pipe,  with  a  bowl  in  the  shape  of  a  human  head;  cast;  Ohio . 47 

Fig.  179.  Pipe,  carved  in  imitation  of  a  beaver ;  cast;  Ohio  47 

Fig.  ISO.  Pipe,  in  the  shape  of  an  otter  with  a  fish  in  its  mouth;  cast;  Ohio . 47 

Fig.  181.  Pipe,  representing  a  heron ;  cast;  Ohio  47 

Fig.  182.  Pipe,  showing  the  body  of  a  bird  with  a  human  head ;  cast;  Ohio . 47 

Fig.  183.  Calumet-pipe;  human  figure  with  a  snake  coiled  around  its  neck;  cast;  Ohio  ...  47 

Fig.  184.  Calumet-pipe,  fashioned  in  imitation  of  a  canine  animal  (wolf  ?)  ;  cast;  Ohio  ...  47 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


XI 


Fig  185. 
Fig.  186. 
Fig.  187. 
Fig  183. 
Fig.  189. 
Fig.  190. 
Fig.  191. 


Fig.  192. 
Fig.  193. 
Fig.  194 
Fig.  195 

Fig.  196. 
Fig.  19^, 
Fig.  198. 
Fig.  199. 
Fig.  200. 
Fig.  201. 
Fig.  202. 
Fig.  203. 
Fig.  204. 
Fig.  205. 
Fig.  206. 

Fig.  207. 
Fig.  208. 
Fig.  209. 
Fig.  210. 

Fig.  211. 


Fig.  212. 


Fig.  213. 


Fig.  214. 
Fig.  215. 
Fig.  216. 
Fig.  217. 
Fig.  218. 
Fig.  219. 
Fig.  220. 
Fig.  221. 
Fig.  222. 
Fig.  223. 


Fig.  224. 
Fig.  225. 
Fig.  226. 


New 


is 

Ken 


Calumet-pipe,  in  the  form  of  a  bird  (eagle  ?)  ;  potstone;  Kentucky 
pour-sided  Pipe,  with  lateral  stem-hole ;  argillite;  Pennsylvania 
Pipe,  formed  in  imitation  of  a  loon,  stem-hole;  serpentine;  West  Virginia 
Pipe,  representing  a  parrot,  stem- hole ;  argillite;  New  York  .... 

Pipe,  barrel-shaped  bowl,  stem  hole ;  argillite ;  Ohio . 

Pipe,  with  a  high  bowl  rising  trom  a  flat  base ;  chlorite;  Virginia 
Pipe,  in  which  the  connection  of  the  bowl  with  the  neck  forms  a  curve ;  serpentine 
1  ork  ........  ...... 

Pipe  with  a  long  stem,  lizard-shaped ;  steatite ;  Pennsylvania  .... 

Four-sided  Pipe,  with  a  neck  for  the  stem;  potstone;  North  Carolina  . 

Pipe,  with  a  quadrilateral  rim  showing  a  human  head  at  each  corner;  serpentine;  Tex 
Pipe,  remarkable  for  a  low,  broad-rimmed  bowl  rising  from  a  thick  base;  limestone; 

tucky  . 

Clay  Pipe,  with  a  neck  for  a  stem ;  Georgia . 

Conoid- shaped  Pipe  ;  serpentine;  California . 

Clay  Pipe,  representing  a  coiled  snake  (fragment) ;  New  York  .... 

Clay  Pipe,  in  the  shape  of  a  raven’s  (?)  head  (fragment)  ;  New  York 
Bead,  globular,  compressed  on  two  sides ;  serpentine;  California 

Bead,  four-sided  ;  potstone;  Pennsylvania . 

Bead,  with  notched  circumference ;  potstone;  Pennsylvania . 

Tube  (bead)  ;  silicious  stone ;  Mississippi . 

Drilled  Ornament,  shaped  like  a  compressed  slender  pyramid;  Catlinite;  New  York 
Gorget,  four-sided,  with  an  ornamental  border  of  dotted  triangles;  trap  rock;  Connecticut 
Flat  oval  Pebble,  pierced  for  suspension,  and  ornamented  with  incised  lines;  sandstone 

Rhode  Island . 

Flat  oval  Pebble,  pierced  for  suspension ;  sandstone ;  Pennsylvania  .... 

Shell  of  hematite,  pierced  and  notched  (“record”)  ;  Virginia . 

Heart-shaped  Ornament ;  argillaceous  slate ;  Ohio . 

Bird-shaped  Object  (amulet?),  pierced  with  an  oblique  hole  at  each  end  of  the  base;  slate 

Pennsylvania . . 

Amulet  (?).  Though  not  presenting  the  shape  of  a  bird,  this  object  bears  some  analogy 
to  the  original  of  Fig.  210,  being  pierced  with  an  oblique  hole  at  each  extremity  of  the 

flat  base ;  slate ;  Ohio . • . 

Object  resembling  a  cylinder  with  an  inwardly  curved  side-surface;  this  surface  bears  in¬ 
cised  ornamental  lines ;  argillaceous  sandstone ;  Kentucky . 

Ring,  deeply  grooved  around  the  circumference  and  pierced  with  eight  equidistant  small 

holes  radiating  from  the  centre ;  cast;  Ohio  . 

Massive  grooved  Ring ;  potstone;  Pennsylvania . 

Sculptured  human  Figure,  body  indistinct ;  crystalline  limestone ;  Tennessee 

Sculptured  human  Head ;  limestone ;  unknown  where  found . 

Carved  human  Head ;  ferruginous  stone ;  Ohio . . 

Sculpture  of  a  human  Head  with  an  elaborate  head-dress ;  volcanic  rock ;  Mexico 

Carving  of  a  human  Figure,  head  only  distinctly  represented ;  slate ;  Mexico 

Carving  of  a  squatting  human  Figure,  neck  pierced;  alabaster;  Mexico  .  .  .  . 

Carving  of  a  human  Skull,  pierced ;  silicified  wood ;  Yucatan . 

Sculptured  Foot-track ;  sandstone;  Missouri  Valley . 

Sculptured  Foot-track;  quartzite;  Missouri  . 


PAGE 

48 

49 
49 
49 
49 
49 

19 

49 

49 

49 

49 

49 

49 

49 

49 

52 

52 

52 

52 

52 

52 

52 

52 

52 

52 

59 


52 


5  9. 


r.9 


do 


o  / 


Objects  of  Copper . 

Celt,  with  adhering  pieces  of  charcoal  and  cinders;  Kentucky . 61 

Axe-shaped  Object,  terminating  at  the  broader  end  in  lateral  curved  appendages;  Kentucky  61 
Celt;  Tennessee . 61 


xii 


Fig. 

227. 

Fig. 

228. 

Fig. 

229. 

Fig. 

230. 

Fig. 

231. 

Fig. 

232. 

Fig. 

233. 

Fig. 

234. 

Fig. 

235. 

Fig. 

230. 

Fig. 

237. 

Fig. 

238. 

Fig. 

230. 

Fig. 

240. 

Fig. 

241. 

Fig. 

242. 

Fig. 

243. 

Fig. 

244. 

Fig. 

245. 

Fig. 

240. 

Fig. 

247. 

Fig. 

248. 

Fig. 

240. 

Fig. 

250. 

Fig. 

251. 

Fig. 

252. 

Fig. 

253. 

Fig. 

254. 

Fig. 

255. 

Fig. 

256. 

Fig. 

257. 

Fig. 

258. 

Fig. 

250. 

Fig. 

200. 

Fig. 

201. 

Fig. 

202. 

Fig. 

203. 

Fig. 

204. 

Fig. 

205. 

Fig. 

200. 

Fig. 

207. 

Fig. 

208. 

Fig. 

200. 

Fig. 

270. 

Fig. 

271. 

Fig. 

272. 

Fig. 

273. 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Gouge-like  Chisel ;  New  York . 

Spcar-liead,  with  tapering  stem ;  Lake  Superior  District  .  • 

Spear-head,  with  truncated  stem ;  Vermont . .  . 

Crescent-shaped  Cutting  Tool;  Wisconsin . 

Awl,  inserted  in  a  bone  handle  ;  Tennessee . 

Sinker;  Ohio . 

Read;  Ohio . 

Tube  of  copper  sheet;  Rhode  Island . 

Spool-shaped  Object;  Tennessee . 


Objects  of  Bone. 

Perforator;  Alaska . . 

Perforator ;  Kentucky . 

Perforator;  Kentucky . 

Needle,  showing  two  grooves  instead  of  an  eye ;  California  .... 

Harpoon-head,  with  a  hole  for  attachment ;  Michigan . 

Harpoon-head ;  perforated  ;  Alaska . 

Fish-hook ;  California . 

Whistle,  made  of  a  hollow  bone ;  California . 

Whistle;  California . 

Cup,  made  of  a  vertebra  of  a  cetacean ;  California . 

Bear’s  Tooth,  drilled ;  New  York . 

Bear’s  Tooth,  drilled  and  polished;  Alaska . 

Drilled  Claw  of  the  grizzly  bear ;  Rocky  Mountains  ;  recent  .... 

Drilled  Claw  of  the  panther;  California . 

Drilled  Ornament  (?),  made  of  the  epiphysis  of  some  animal;  Kentucky 
Worked  hollow  Bone ;  California . 

Objects  made  of  Shells. 

Bysicon  perversum ,  transformed  into  a  Vessel;  Indiana . 

Spoon  made  of  a  Unio- shell ;  Kentucky . 

Celt-shaped  Tool ;  Florida . 

Celt-shaped  Tool ;  Kentucky . 

Fish-hook,  made  of  /lali'ofi's-shell ;  California . 

Strombus  pugilis,  pierced;  Florida . 

Unio,  pierced  ;  Tennessee  . 

Olivella  biplicata,  truncated  at  the  apex;  California . 

Oliva  literata,  apex  removed;  Florida . 

Becten  concentricus,  pierced ;  Florida . 

Cylindrical  Bead ;  California . 

Cylindrical  Bead ;  California . 

Cylindrical  Bead  ;  California . 

Prismatic  Bead ;  California . 

Bead,  made  from  a  columella;  Georgia . 

Bead,  tapering  at  both  ends,  showing  a  part  of  the  columellar  groove;  California 

Pin-shaped  Object ;  Florida . 

String  of  Wampum,  composed  of  white  and  violet  beads;  Upper  Missouri  . 

Disc  of  Ilaliotis-sheU,  with  five  perforations  and  ornamented  border;  California 
Disc  of  J/affotfs-shell,  showing  five  perforations;  California  . 

Gorget,  ornamented  with  an  incised  design;  Tennessee  .... 
Gorget;  unornameuted ;  Kentucky . 


TAGE 

01 

Cl 

Cl 

Cl 

Cl 

61 

Cl 

Cl 

Cl 


04 

C4 

G4 


Cl 

04 

04 

04 

G4 

G4 

04 

04 

G4 

04 

G4 

G4 

04 


07 

07 

07 

07 

07 

00 

09 

00 

GO 

00 

00 

00 

00 

00 

00 

00 

09 

00 

00 

00 

00 

09 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Xlll 


PAGE 

Fig.  274.  Pear-shaped  Pendant,  grooved  at  the  upper  end;  New  York . GO 

Pig.  275.  Ring-shaped  Pendant  of  Ilaliotis-shaW ;  California . GO 

Pig.  27G.  Crescent-shaped  Ornament,  pierced  at  both  ends;  California . GO 

Fig.  277.  Object  of  Haliotis- shell,  irregular  in  outline,  pierced  with  four  holes,  and  ornamented  along 

the  border;  California . GO 

Pig.  278.  Object  of  Uaiiotfs- shell,  irregular  in  shape,  pierced  with  one  hole  ;  California  ...  GO 

Pig.  270.  Object,  made  of  Lucapina  cremilata,  nearly  oval  in  outline,  and  showing  ^  large  oval  aper¬ 
ture  in  the  middle ;  California . GO 

Objects  of  Clay. 

Pig.  280.  Bowl,  with  four  projections  at  the  rim  ;  Tennessee . 77 

Pig.  281.  Bowl,  with  a  handle  representing  a  bird’s  head  and  neck,  and  a  projection  at  the  opposite 

side ;  Illinois . 77 

Fig.  282.  Bowl,  with  four  ears  set  around  the  shoulder ;  Kentucky . 77 

Pig.  283.  Bowl,  showing  four  projections  in  the  plane  of  the  rim  ;  Tennessee . 77 

Fig.  284.  Bowl,  provided  with  two  mutilated  studs  projecting  below  the  shoulder ;  Arkansas  .  .  77 

Fig.  285.  Ornamented  Vessel,  contracting  toward  the  aperture  without  forming  a  shoulder;  North 

Carolina . 77 

Pig.  28G.  Vessel,  provided  with  a  low  wide  neck  ;  Tennessee . 77 

Pig.  287.  Ornamented  flat-bottomed  Vessel,  with  a  wide  cylindrical  neck ;  Louisiana  ....  77 

Pig.  288.  Small-necked,  nearly  globular  Vessel ;  Tennessee . 78 

Pig.  289.  Ornamented  Vessel,  with  a  wide  neck ;  Georgia . 78 

Pig.  290.  Flat-bottomed  ornamented  Vessel,  with  a  narrow  low  neck;  Louisiana  ....  78 

Pig.  291.  Long-necked  Bottle,  ornamented  with  studs  ;  Tennessee . 78 

Fig.  292.  Pitcher,  with  ornamented  neck ;  Utah  Territory . 78 

Pig.  293.  Large  Vessel,  with  a  slightly  projecting  rim  and  nearly  conical  bottom ;  outside  marked  with 

impressions  probably  produced  by  modeling  in  a  woven  basket ;  Georgia  ...  79 

Pig.  294.  Ornamented  Vessel,  showing  a  depression  around  its  middle ;  Louisiana  ....  80 

Pig.  295.  Fish-shaped  Vessel ;  Tennessee . 80 

Pig.  29G.  Nearly  globular  Vessel,  with  a  neck  resembling  an  animal’s  head,  one  side  of  which  forms 

the  aperture;  Tennessee . 80 

Pig.  297.  Small  globular  Vessel,  with  a  neck  formed  in  imitation  of  a  human  head;  aperture  in  the 

occipital  portion ;  Kentucky . 80 

Pig.  298.  Vase,  elaborately  ornamented  with  figures  in  relief;  Mexico . 82 

Fig.  299.  Pitcher,  with  two  mouths  and  two  handles ;  highly  ornamented  with  raised  figures ;  Mexico  82 

Fig.  300.  Hieroglyphical  Tablet . 83 

Pig.  301.  Vase,  showing  elaborate  raised  ornamentation . 84 

Fig.  302.  Small  Vessel,  tapering  to  a  point  opposite  the  aperture;  Mexico  84 

Fig.  303.  Small  goblet-shaped  Vessel ;  Mexico . 84 

Pig.  304.  Human  Head  ;  Alabama . 84 

Fig.  305.  Wolf’s  Head;  Alabama . 84 

Fig.  306.  Seated  Human  Figure  with  another  on  its  back;  Mexico . 8G 

✓ 

Pig.  307.  Seated  Human  Figure  with  a  peculiar  head-dress  ;  Mexico . 86 

Pig.  308.  Squatting  Female  Figure ;  Mexico . 8G 

Fig.  309.  Standing  Female  Figure  with  a  long  gown;  Mexico . 8G 

Pig.  310.  Snake,  coiled  on  the  back  of  a  Turtle ;  Mexico  ...  . 87 

Fig.  311.  Coiled  Rattle-snake ;  Mexico . 87 

Pig.  312.  Ornamented  Spindle-whorl ;  Mexico . 87 

Pig.  313.  Ornamented  Spindle- whorl ;  Mexico . S7 


xiv 


Fig.  314. 
Fig.  315. 
Fig.  31G. 


Fig.  317. 
Fig.  318. 
Fig.  319. 
Fig.  320. 
Fig.  321. 

Fig.  322. 


Fig.  323. 
Fig.  324. 
Fig.  325. 
Fig.  32G. 
Fig.  327. 
Fig.  328. 
Fig.  329. 
Fig.  330. 


Fig.  331. 
Fig.  332. 
Fig.  333. 
Fig.  334. 
Fig.  335. 
Fig.  33G. 

Fig.  337. 
Fig.  338. 
Fig.  339. 
Fig.  340. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Objects  of  Wood . 


Bailing-vessel;  California  ......... 

Toy  Canoe;  California . 

Sword-sliapeil  Implement;  California . 

Objects  of  chipped  and  ground  Stone  ( Supplement ). 

Chipped  Perforator,  three-sided ;  flint;  California  ........ 

Chipped  Perforator,  massive  opposite  the  point ;  flint;  California  .  .  .  .  . 

Chipped  Implement,  sickle-shaped ;  flint;  Ohio . 

Ground  Implement,  club-head-shaped ;  greenstone;  California  ...... 

Ground  Implement,  curved,  and  provided  with  a  shoulder  on  the  upper  side,  and  four  conical 
projections  on  the  lower  one ;  basaltic  rock ;  Oregon  .....  . 

Ground  Implement,  flat,  tapering  at  one  end  and  broad  at  the  other,  where  it  is  pierced; 
argillite ;  Massachusetts . 


Ilafted  Stone  Weapons. 

Grooved  Axe;  greenstone;  Dakota  Indians . 

Celt;  argillite;  Indians  of  the  Missouri  Valley . 

War-club,  formed  of  a  round  stone  firmly  attached  to  a  handle;  Dakota  Indians  . 

War-club,  consisting  of  a  round  stone  connected  with  the  handle  by  flexible  thongs ;  Apaches 

War-club  with  an  egg-shaped  bead  of  limestone  ;  Blackfeet . 

War-club  with  a  head  of  an  elongated  egg-shape;  greenstone;  Missouri  River  \  alley 
Knife  with  a  lance-liead-shaped  blade  of  slate;  Nunivak  Island,  Alaska  .  .  .  . 

Wooden  Scabbard  for  the  same . 

Ilafted  Stone  and  Bone  Tools. 

Hammer  with  ahead  of  greenstone;  Fort  Simpson,  British  Columbia  .  .  .  .  . 

Adze-shaped  Pick  of  whalebone;  Mackenzie’s  River  District . 

Pick  of  walrus  ivory ;  Nunivak  Island . 

Hoe,  made  of  the  shoulder-blade  of  a  buffalo;  Arickarees,  Dakota  Territory 
Reaping-hook,  made  of  the  lower  jaw  of  an  antelope;  Caddoes,  Indian  Territory 
Adze-like  Implement,  consisting  of  a  small  celt-shaped  blade  of  argillite  connected  with  a 

forked  handle ;  Vancouver’s  Island . .  • 

Celt-like  Chisel  of  argillite,  attached  to  a  cylindrical  handle;  Vancouver’s  Island 
Celt-shaped  Chisel  of  argillite,  connected  with  a  handle  of  peculiar  form ;  Vancouver’s  Island 
Flint  Scraper,  connected  with  a  hook-shaped  ornamented  handle  of  elk-liprn ;  Mandans  . 
Tool  of  deer-horn,  used  in  chipping  stone  arrow-heads,  perforators,  etc. ;  Nevada  Territory 


PAGE 

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88 

88 


90 

90 

90 

90 

90 

90 


93 

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93 

93 

93 

93 

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93 


95 

95 

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95 

95 

95 

95 

95 

95 

95 


INTRODUCTION. 


Tiie  National  Museum  has  been  for  years  the  depository  of  large  and  valu¬ 
able  collections  illustrative  of  North  American  Ethnology,  which  now  form 
one  of  its  most  important  departments.  In  classifying  this  rich  material  for  the 
purpose  of  exhibition  during  the  Centennial  Celebration  at  Philadelphia,  it  has 
been  thought  proper  to  separate  the  objects  supposed  to  belong  to  times  ante- 
ceding  the  European  occupation  of  the  continent  from  those  that  are  known 
to  have  been  manufactured  within  the  period  of  contact  between  the  Indian 
and  the  Caucasian.  Only  thus  it  became  possible  to  exhibit,  approximately 
at  least,  the  aboriginal  state  of  culture  before  it  had  been  modified  by  European 
influences.  The  first  or  archaeological  series,  to  which  the  following  account 
more  particularly  refers,  comprises  objects  found  in  mounds  and  other  burial- 
places  of  early  date,  on  and  below  the  surface  of  the  ground,  in  caves,  shell- 
heaps,  etc., — in  fact  all  articles  of  aboriginal  workmanship  that  cannot  with 
certainty  be  ascribed  to  any  of  the  tribes  which  are  either  still  in  existence 
or  have  become  extinct  within  historical  times.  These  relics,  consisting  of 
chipped  and  ground  stone,  of  copper,  bone,  horn,  shell-matter,  clay,  and,  to  a 
small  extent,  of  wood,  have  been  grouped  according  to  material,  and  then 
classed  under  such  denominations  as  their  forms  suggested.  Similarity  of 
shape  afforded  the  principal  guidance  in  arranging  these  specimens,  many  of 
which  leave  a  wide  scope  for  conjecture  as  to  the  uses  to  which  they  were 
applied  by  their  makers.  The  second  or  more  strictly  ethnological  series,  a 
description  of  which  is  not  attempted  at  present,  consists  of  articles  ob¬ 
tained  from  existing  native  tribes  by  private  explorations  as  well,  as  by 
expeditions  undertaken  by  order  of  the  United  States  Government,  and  con¬ 
tains  almost  every  object  tending  to  illustrate  their  domestic  life,  hunting, 
fishing,  games,  warfare,  navigation,  traveling  by  land — in  short  every  phase 
of  their  existence  that  can  be  represented  by  tangible  tokens.  The  use  of 
these  objects,  many  of  which  show  forms  copied  from  the  manufactures  of  the 
whites,  is  in  most  cases  well  understood,  and  they  have  been  arranged  accord¬ 
ing  to  their  mode  of  application,  and  without  reference  to  the  substances  of 


2 


INTRODUCTION. 


which  they  are  made.  This  mode  of  classification,  as  stated,  could  not  be 
applied  to  the  relics  composing  what  is  called  the  archaeological  series,  con¬ 
sidering  that  the  latter  embraces  a  large  number  of  specimens,  and  even 
classes  of  typical  objects,  to  which  it  would  be  hazardous  to  assign  a  definite 
use;  and  this  uncertainty  attaches  even  to  such  common  relics  of  the  abo¬ 
rigines  as  have  hitherto  been  thought  to  represent  well-recognized  types. 
Collectors,  for  instance,  are  very  ready  to  class  chipped  stone  articles  of  cer¬ 
tain  forms  occurring  throughout  the  United  States  as  arrow  and  lance-heads, 
without  thinking  that  many  of  these  specimens  may  have  been  quite  differ¬ 
ently  employed  by  the  aborigines.  Thus  the  Pai-Utes  of  Southern  Utah  use 
to  this  day  chipped  flint  blades,  identical  in  shape  with  those  that  arc  usually 
called  arrow  and  spear-points,  as  knives,  fastening  them  in  short  wooden 
handles  by  means  of  a  black  resinous  substance.  Quite  a  number  of  these 
hafted  flint  knives  (Fig.  1)  have  been  deposited  in  the  collection 
of  the  National  Museum  by  Major  J.  AV.  Powell,  who  obtained  them 
during  his  sojourn  among  the  Pai-Utes.  The  writer  was  informed 
by  Major  Powell  that  these  people  use  their  stone  knives  with  great 
effect,  especially  in  cutting  leather.  On  the  other  hand,  the  stone- 
tipped  arrows  still  made  by  various  Indian  tribes  are  mostly  pro¬ 
vided  with  small  slender  points,  generally  less  than  an  inch  in  length, 
and  seldom  exceeding  an  inch  and  a  half,  as  exemplified  by  many 
specimens  of  modern  arrows  in  the  Smithsonian  collection.  If  these 
facts  be  deemed  conclusive,  it  would  follow  that  the  real  Indian  arrow¬ 
head  was  comparatively  small,  and  that  the  larger  specimens  classed 
as  arrow-heads,  and  not  a  few  of  the  so-called  spear-points,  were 
F1in  wooden  originally  set  in  handles  and  were  used  as  knives  and  daggers.  In 
handle  (j).  many  cases,  further,  it  is  impossible  to  determine  the  real  character 
of  small  leaf-shaped  or  triangular  objects  of  chipped  flint,  which  may  have 
served  as  arrow-heads  or  either  as  scrapers  or  cutting  tools,  in  which  the 
convex  or  straight  base  formed  the  working  edge.  Certain  chipped  spear¬ 
head-shaped  specimens  with  a  sharp  straight  or  slightly  convex  base  may 
have  been  cutting  implements  or  chisels.  Arrow-heads  of  a  slender  elongated 
form  pass  over  almost  imperceptibly  into  perforators,  insomuch  that  it  is  often 
impossible  to  make  a  distinction  between  them.  Among  the  implements, 
weapons,  etc.,  that  have  been  brought  into  shape  by  pecking  or,  grinding 
there  are  many  types  of  unmistakable  character,  such  as  axes,  adzes,  mauls, 
mortars,  pestles,  pipes,  etc.;  yet  here,  too,  not  a  few  classes  of  objects  are 
met  to  which  a  definite  use  cannot  be  ascribed.  Among  the  latter  are 
disc-shaped  stones,  pierced  tablets,  tubes,  rings,  pendants,  and  various  other 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


a 


typical  articles.  In  many  instances  it  cannot  be  determined  whether  an 
object  was  designed  for  use  or  for  ornament. 

In  order  to  classify  the  numerous  articles  composing  the  archaeological 
series,  it  was  necessary,  of  course,  to  arrange  them  under  different  heads;  but 
in  consideration  of  their  too  often  doubtful  mode  of  application  it  cannot  be 
asserted  that  the  specimens  represent  in  all  cases  the  characters  attributed  to 
them  by  the  titles  under  which  they  have  been  classed.  Nor  does  the  division 
into  two  groups  intended  to  illustrate  different  periods  warrant  absolute 
exemption  from  errors,  considering  that  a  number  of  the  articles  embraced  in 
the  archaeological  series  may  have  been  made  after  the  arrival  of  the  Cau¬ 
casians  in  North  America,  especially  such  relics  as  are  derived  from  districts 
inhabited  by  tribes  that  became  in  comparatively  recent  times  acquainted  with 
the  manufactures  and  commodities  of  the  whites.  Yet,  after  due  considera¬ 
tion,  the  system  here  adopted  seemed  better  calculated  to  exhibit  the  former 
and  present  state  of  the  aborigines  than  any  other  arrangement  presenting  the 
whole  available  material  under  one  general  aspect. 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  specimens  in  the  archaeological  department 
are  manufactures  of  stone,  being  fashioned  either  by  flaking  or  the  more 
tedious  process  of  chipping,  or  by  pecking,  grinding  and  polishing.  The 
chipped  series  chiefly  comprises  arrow  and  spear-heads,  cutting  and  scraping 
tools,  saws,  perforators,  and  digging  implements.  These  articles  are  usually 
made  of  hard  silicious  stone  of  conchoidal  fracture,  such  as  hornstone,  jasper, 
chalcedony,  ferruginous  quartz,  and  other  kindred  varieties,  all  of  them  occa¬ 
sionally  comprised  in  these  pages,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  under  the  general 
term  “  flint,”  though  the  real  cretaceous  flint,  which  has  played  such  an  impor¬ 
tant  part  in  the  prehistoric  ages  of  Europe,  does  not  seem  to  occur  in  this 
country.  Many  arrow  and  spear-heads  consist  of  the  common  white  quartz, 
and  some  are  made  of  different  kinds  of  stone  of  inferior  hardness.  The 
volcanic  obsidian  is  represented  by  a  beautiful  series  of  Mexican  knives  and 
cores,  and  by  arrow-heads,  etc.,  derived  from  regions  north  of  Mexico.  Some 
Indian  tribes  still  arm  their  arrows  with  points  of  obsidian.  In  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  ground  and  polished  weapons,  tools  and  ornaments,  the  aborigines 
employed  every  kind  of  stone,  both  hard  and  soft,  suited  to  their  purposes. 
Grooved  axes,  celts,  adzes,  pestles,  etc.,  are  very  frequently  made  of  varieties 
of  greenstone,  a  substance  which,  being  hard  as  well  as  tough,  was  well  fitted 
to  withstand  rough  use.  Some  drilled  and  highly  finished  ceremonial  weapons 
are  made  of  the  hardest  silicious  materials,  showing  that  the  aborigines  were 
in  this  respect  in  advance  of  the  prehistoric  races  of  Europe,  who  scarcely 
ever  attempted  to  drill  stone  of  such  hardness.  Quartzite,  sandstone,  serpen- 


4 


INTRODUCTION. 


tine,  hematite  and  slate  often  constitute  the  materials  of  ground  articles. 
More  precise  statements  will  be  made  in  the  proper  places. 

Though  the  Smithsonian  collections  chiefly  embrace  aboriginal  manufac¬ 
tures,  ancient  and  recent,  derived  from  the  northern  half  of  the  continent,  or, 
in  other  words,  from  the  vast  territory  bounded  by  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific, 
the  arctic  regions  and  the  southern  frontier  of  Mexico,  it  possesses,  in  addi¬ 
tion,  many  valuable  specimens,  and  even  large  collections,  from  the  Antilles 
and  from  Central  and  South  America.  Perhaps  the  most  important  of  these 
collections  is  one  from  Porto  Pico,  presented  by  the  late  Mr.  George  Latimer, 
for  a  long  time  a  resident  of  that  island.  It  comprises  many  specimens  of 
pottery  of  a  peculiar  character,  and  several  hundred  articles  of  stone,  among 
them  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  celts,  numerous  pestles,  masks,  rubbing- 
stones,  and,  above  all,  a  rich  series  of  those  curious  oval  or  horse-collar-shaped 
objects,  which  have  for  many  years  attracted  the  attention  and  elicited  the 
comments  of  archaeologists,  both  in  Europe  and  in  America.  This  collection 
is  probably  unsurpassed  by  any  other  derived  from  the  Island  of  Porto  Pico. 
The  Central  American  States  are  represented  by  hundreds  of  specimens  of 
pottery  and  objects  of  stone,  some  of  them  of  remarkable  character.  The 
large  stone  idols  obtained  by  Mr.  E.  G.  Squier  in  Nicaragua,  and  described 
and  figured  by  him  in  his  well-knoWn  work  on  that  State,  are  among  the  most 
valued  relics  of  the  National  Museum.  Peru  has  furnished  a  large  collection 
of  pottery,  consisting  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  vessels  moulded  in  the 
peculiar  style  formerly  prevalent  among  the  aborigines  of  that  country,  and 
also  a  number  of  mummies,  or  rather  desiccated  human  bodies.  The  other 
parts  of  South  America — Chile,  Guiana,  Brazil,  and  even  the  southernmost 
region  of  the  continent,  Tierra  del  Fuego — have  likewise  contributed  their 
share  to  enrich  the  Museum  of  the  capital. 

In  conclusion,  it  should  be  stated  that  the  Smithsonian  collections  are  not 
derived  exclusively  from  America,  but  that  they  likewise  embrace  manufac¬ 
tures  of  many  races  of  other  parts  of  the  world.  Thus,  there  may  be  seen  in 
the  Museum  a  great  variety  of  relics  pertaining  to  the  prehistoric  ages  of 
Europe,  such  as  rude  flint  implements  from  the  drift  of  France  and  England, 
articles  of  stone,  horn  and  bone  found  in  the  celebrated  caves  of  the  Dordogne 
(Southern  France),  a  large  and  varied  series  of  Swiss  lacustrine  antiquities, 
and  many  neolithic  Weapons  and  tools  from  Denmark  and  other  districts  of 
Northern  Europe.  Still  more  numerous  are  weapons,  utensils,  textile  and 
ceramic  fabrics  from  Asia,  Africa,  Australia,  and  the  island  groups  of  the 
Pacific.  Many  of  these  products  of  art,  including  the  boomerang  of  the 
Australian  savage  and  the  carved  war-club  of  the  Feegeean,  as  well  as  the  fin- 


SMITIISOXIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


5 


ished  tissues  and  implements  of  China  and  Japan,  were  procured  in  the  course 
of  explorations  undertaken  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States  Government, 
as  before  stated.  Among  them  the  circumnavigation  of  the  globe  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Wilkes  and  Perry’s  expedition  to  Japan  deserve  special 
mention. 

The  following  descriptions  refer  only  to  the  typical  objects  in  the  collection. 
The  classification  might  have  been  much  extended  by  the  introduction  of  sub¬ 
divisions,  if  the  character  of  this  publication  had  permitted  a  more  exhaustive 
treatment  of  the  subject.  The  present  condensed  account  is  but  the  fore¬ 
runner  of  more  minute  archaeological  and  ethnological  works,  which  will  be 
published  in  due  time  under  the  auspices  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 


\ 


. 


' 


I.  STONE. 


Archaeological  researches  in  Europe  have  shown  that  the  early  inhabitants 
of  that  continent  used  for  a  very  long  period  exclusively  rude  tools  and  weap¬ 
ons  of  chipped  flint,  until  they  began  to  render  their  implements  of  war  and 
peace  more  serviceable  by  the  process  of  grinding.  Archaeologists,  therefore, 
divide  the  European  stone  age  into  a  period  of  chipped  and  one  of  ground 
stone,  or,  technically  speaking,  into  a  palceolithic  (old-stone)  and  a  neolithic 
(new-stone)  period.  Palaeolithic  implements  occur  in  ancient  beds  of  river- 
gravel  and  in  cave-deposits  of  early  date,  and  are  often  associated  with  the 
osseous  remains  of  the  mammoth,  woolly-haired  rhinoceros,  cave-bear,  cave- 
lion,  and  other  pachydermatous  and  carnivorous  animals  now  extinct  in 
Europe.  The  implements  of  the  later  or  neolithic  period  indicate  a  more 
advanced  state  of  human  development,  and  the  animal  remains  sometimes 
found  with  them  belong  to  species  still  existing  in  Europe,  or  known  to  have 
there  existed  within  historical  times.  Thus  the  gradual  progress  in  the  me¬ 
chanical  skill  of  the  prehistoric  European  is  illustrated  by  his  works  of  art, 
which  present,  as  it  were,  an  ascending  scale,  beginning  with  the  rude  flint 
flake  or  the  roughly  fashioned  hatchet-blade,  and  terminating  with  the  elabor¬ 
ately  chipped  dagger  or  lance-head,  the  pierced  axe,  and  other  types  in 
vogue  immediately  before  the  introduction  of  bronze. 

In  North  America  chipped  as  well  as  ground  stone  implements  are  abund¬ 
ant;  yet  they  occur  promiscuously,  and  thus  far  cannot  be  respectively  referred 
to  certain  epochs  in  the  development  of  the  aborigines  of  the  country,  and 
hence  the  here  adopted  separation  of  North  American  stone  articles  into  a 
chipped  and  a  ground  series  has  no  chronological  significance  whatever,  but 
simply  refers  to  the  modes  of  manufacture. 

A.  FLAKED  AND  CHIPPED  STONE. 

1.  Raw  Material, — As  such  may  be  considered  pieces  of  flint,  etc.,  rudely 
blocked  out  and  presenting  no  definite  form.  The  Museum  possesses  a  series 
of  these  roughly  prepared  fragments,  which  were  obviously  designed  to  be 
made  into  implements.  They  are  often  of  comparatively  large  size,  and  gener¬ 
ally  consist  of  some  kind  of  silicious  material  (hornstone,  jasper,  etc.). 
They  occur,  sometimes  many  of  them  together,  in  various  parts  of  the  United 
States. 


7 


8 


FLAKED  AND  CHIPPED  STOKE. 


2.  Irregular  Flakes  of  Flint,  Obsidian,  etc,,  produced  by  a  single  blow  — 

Some  may  represent  cutting  tools  of  the  most  primitive  kind. 


3 


OBSIDIAN  KNIFE  AND  NUCLEUS  (£) 


3.  Two-edged  narrow  Flakes  of  Obsidian  and  prismatic  Cores  or  Nuclei, 
from  which  such  Flakes  have  been  detached  by  pressure  (Figs.  2  and  3, 

Mexico). — The  mode  of  manufacture  of  these  flakes  or  knives  has  been  des¬ 
cribed  by  some  of  the  early  Spanish  authors  on  Mexico.1  Obsidian  breaks 
like  the  cretaceous  flint  of  Europe,  and  hence  the  Mexican  knives  are  identi¬ 
cal  in  shape  with  the  neolithic  flint  knives  found  in  the  countries  bordering  on 
the  Baltic  Sea. 

4.  Pieces  of  Flint,  Quartz,  Obsidian,  etc.,  roughly  flaked,  and  either 
representing  rude  tools,  or  designed  to  be  wrought  into  more  regular 
forms.— Unfinished  Arrow  and  Spear-heads. 

5.  Arrow-heads.  — They  are  the  most  abundant  aboriginal  relics  in  the 
United  States;  but  being  chiefly  made  of  hard  and  brittle  silicious  materials, 
they  were  easily  damaged  in  hitting  the  object  at  which  they  were  aimed,  and 
many  of  them  consequently  bear  the  marks  of  violent  use.  Yet  perfect  speci¬ 
mens  are  by  no  means  scarce.  The  art  of  arrow-making  survives  to  the 
present  day  among  certain  Indian  tribes  inhabiting  parts  of  the  United  States 
not  yet  settled  by  whites,  and  the  National  Museum  contains  a  large  number 
of  modern  stone  arrow-heads  (partly  in  shafts)  which  equal,  and  even  surpass 
in  workmanship,  the  best  specimens  picked  up  in  fields  or  recovered  from  old 
Indian  burial-places.  The  modes  of  their  manufacture  have  been  witnessed 
and  described  by  explorers,  and  these  operations  now  appear  less  difficult 
than  they  were  formerly  supposed  to  be. 

A  classification  of  the  arrow-heads  with  regard  to  their  chronological  de¬ 
velopment  is  not  attempted,  and  hardly  deemed  necessary.  North  American 
Indians  of  the  same  tribe  (as,  for  instance,  the  Pai-Utes  of  Southern  Utah) 


1  The  fullest  account  is  given  by  Torquemada  ( Monarquia  Indiana,  Seville,  1615).  The  Aztec  artisan,  he 
states,  dislodged  the  obsidian  flakes  from  the  block  by  pressure,  employing  a  large  wooden  T-shaped  imple¬ 
ment,  which  acted  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  a  punch,  the  cross-piece  resting  against  the  chest.  A  trans¬ 
lation  of  Torquemada’s  description  is  to  be  found  in  E.  B.  Tylor’s  “Anahuac,”  London,  1861,  p.  331. 
Motolinia  makes  similar  statements,  which,  it  is  believed,  have  not  yet  been  quoted  in  English  works. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


9 


arm  their  arrows  with  stone  points  of  different  forms,  the  shape  of  the  arrow¬ 
head  being  with  them  merely  a  matter  of  individual  taste  or  of  convenience. 
It  is  here  only  intended  to  present  the  characteristic  types  of  these  weapons. 
Yet  any  such  arrangement  must  he  arbitrary  to  a  great  extent,  owing  to  the 
many  intermediate  forms  in  which  the  distinguishing  peculiarities  are  wanting, 
and  the  same  difficulty  is  met  in  the  classification  of  stone  articles  in  general, 
may  they  be  chipped  or  ground. 


ARROW-HEADS  Q). 


a.  Leaf-shaped,  base  pointed  or  rounded  (Fig.  4,  gray  semi-opal,  California). 

Those  with  a  pointed  base  imperceptibly  pass  over  into  the  lozenge  form, 
which  is  not  very  frequently  met. 

b.  Convex-sided  with  truncated  base  (Fig.  5,  transparent  obsidian,  Mexico). 

Specimens  of  this  description  often  approach  the  triangular  shape. 

c.  Triangular,  forming  an  equilateral  or  isosceles  triangle  (Fig.  6,  gray  jasper, 

Yew  York).  Perfectly  triangular  arrow-points  are  less  frequent  than 
those  of  the  following  class. 

d.  Straight-sided  with  more  or  less  concave  base.  In  some  the  concavity 

assumes  the  character  of  a  deep  indentation  by  which  barbs  are  produced 


2 


10 


FLAKED  AND  CHIPPED  STONE. 

(Fig.  7,  brown  jasper,  Oregon).  There  are  varieties  of  this  type,  in 
which  the  sides  appear  more  or  less  convex,  or  straight  near  the  base  to  a 
certain  distance,  where  they  form  obtuse  angles  or  shoulders  from  which 
they  converge  to  the  point. 

e.  Notched  at  the  sides  near  the  base,  which  is  straight  (Fig.  8,  jaspery  agate, 

Texas),  concave  (Fig.  9,  light-brown  hornstone,  Tennessee),  or  convex 
(Fig.  10,  gray  hornstone,  Ohio).2 

f.  Stemmed.  —  Expanding  stem,  base  straight  (Fig.  11,  light-colored  flint, 

Ohio),  concave  (Fig.  12,  dark-gray  hornstone,  Pennsylvania),  or  convex 
(Fig.  13,  silicified  Avood,  Ohio). —  Straight-sided  truncated  stem;  sides  of 
stem  parallel  (Fig.  14,  gray  hornstone,  Ohio),  or  converging  toward  the 
base  (Fig.  15,  quartz,  District  of  Columbia).  In  such  specimens  the  base 
of  the  stem  is  straight  or  concave. — Rounded  or  more  or  less  tapering 
stem  (Fig.  16,  light-brown  flint;  Fig.  17,  brownish  hornstone;  Fig.  18, 
gray  hornstone.  All  from  Tennessee).  With  the  arrow-heads  character¬ 
ized  by  a  tapering  stem  may  be  classed  those  of  a  perfect  lozenge  form, 
which,  as  stated,  are  comparatively  scarce. 

g.  Barbed  and  stemmed. — There  is  much  difference  in  the  shape  and  length  of 

the  barbs,  and  the  stems  are  truncated,  rounded  or  tapering,  etc.,  thus 
presenting  nearly  all  the  forms  seen  in  unbarbed  stemmed  arrow-heads 
(Fig.  19,  gray-brown  hornstone,  Tennessee;  Fig.  20,  brown  semi-opal, 
Oregon;  Fig.  21,  green  semi-opal,  Oregon). 

In  addition,  many  arrow-heads,  belonging  by  their  general  shape  to  one  or 
the  other  of  the  classes  just  enumerated,  are  modified  in  different  ways.  The 
peculiarity  of  some  consists  in  their  being  beveled  along  both  edges  on  oppo¬ 
site  sides,  so  as  to  form  in  the  cross-section  a  figure  resembling  a  long- 
stretched  rhomboid  (Fig.  22,  gray  flint,  Tennessee) ;  others  exhibit  serrated 
edges  (Fig.  23,  gray  flint,  Oregon;  Fig.  24,  yellow  jasper,  Louisiana);  and  in 
a  number  of  specimens  the  stem  is  bifurcated  (Fig.  25,  gray  jasper,  Tennes¬ 
see). 


6.  Spear-heads, — The  articles  brought  under  this  head  are  almost  as  varied 
in  shape  as  those  designated  as  arrow-heads,  and  in  many  instances  they  pre¬ 
sent  exactly  the  same  forms,  the  only  distinguishing  feature  being  their  larger 
size.3  As  before  stated,  many  of  the  so-called  spear-heads  may  have  been 
inserted  in  wooden  handles,  to  serve  as  cutting  tools. 


2  In  quite  a  number  of  notched  flint  arrow-heads  with  convex  base,  and  also  in  many  spear-heads  (?)  of 
corresponding  shape,  the  curved  base-edge  exhibits  a  marked  polish,  as  though  they  had  been  employed  as 
scraping  or  smoothing  tools.  The  polish  is  not  intentionally  produced,  but  evidently  the  result  of  a  long- 
continued  use,  totally  different  from  that  for  which  these  articles  would  seem  to  have  been  designed. 

’In  separating  arrow-heads  from  the  larger  objects  of  similar  shape,  the  writer  follows  a  usage  rather 
than  his  own  inclination. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION 


11 


a.  Triangular  or  more  or  less  convex-sided,  sometimes  very  slender;  base 
straight  (Fig.  26,  light-gray  chalcedony,  Tennessee),  concave  (Fig.  27, 
yellow  jasper,  California),  or  convex,  in  some  cases  bluntly  pointed. 


l, 

3 


SPEAR-HEADS. 


b.  Notched  at  the  sides  near  the  base,  the  latter  being  straight,  concave,  or 
convex  (Fig.  28,  gray  flint,  Kentucky) .  Barbs  are  sometimes  formed  by 


12 


FLAKED  AND  CIIIFPED  STONE. 


the  notching,  and  the  beveling  on  opposite  sides,  as  in  arrow-heads,  is 
occasionally  to  be  noticed.  Quite  exceptional  are  spear-heads  exhibiting 
several  notches  at  the  base  (Fig.  31  a,  brown  jasper,  Maine;  half  size). 

e.  Stemmed. — Expanding  stem,  base  straight  (Fig.  29,  quartz  schist,  Penn¬ 
sylvania),  concave  or  convex. — Straight-sided  truncated  stem  with  par¬ 
allel  or  converging  sides,  and  straight,  concave,  or  slightly  convex  base. — 
Pounded  or  more  or  less  tapering  stem  (Fig.  30,  gray  flint,  New  York). 

d.  Barbed  and  stemmed  (Fig.  31,  white  milky  quartz,  Louisiana). 

7,  Perforators. — The  ruder  implements  of  this  class  may  be  characterized 
in  a  general  way  as  irregular  fragments  of  flint,  etc.,  mostly  of  an  elongated 
form,  which  have  been  chipped  to  a  point  at  one  extremity,  and  hence  it  may 
be  imagined  that  they  assume  an  almost  endless  variety  of  shapes.  The 
pointed  part,  however,  presents,  from  necessity,  a  more  or  less  developed 
pyramidal  form.  Other  perforators  are  worked  into  shapes  sufficiently  defined 
to  permit  a  classification.  Yet  in  many  cases  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
distinguish  a  well-made  perforator  from  a  slender  arrow-head,  especially  when 
the  former  bears  no  traces  of  use  at  its  point.  This  apparently  intact  state 
can  be  frequently  noticed,  and  hence  some  persons  have  gone  so  far  as  to  deny 
the  existence  of  North  American  piercing  implements  of  stone.  They  forget 
that  the  perforating  of  soft  substances,  such  as  moistened  hides,  would  have 
little  effect  on  a  tool  of  hard  material.  It  is  known,  moreover,  that  such 
implements  are  still  made  and  used  by  remote  Indian  tribes.  The  more 
regular  perforators  may  be  thus  classified: — 


PERFORATORS  (j-). 


a.  Almost  triangular  with  broad  base  and  short  point  (Fig.  32,  red  jasper, 

Ohio) . 

b.  Pointed  part  long  and  slender,  and  the  opposite  end  expanding  and  of 

irregular  outline  (Fig.  33,  brown  jasper,  Oregon;  Fig.  34,  white  opaque 
flint,  Missouri). 

c.  Pointed  part  long  and  slender,  and  expanding  base  indented,  presenting 

lateral  wings  (Fig.  35,  light-gray  flint,  Ohio). 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


13 


d.  More  or  less  slender  with  expanding  lower  part,  which  is  notched  at  the 

sides,  or  terminates  in  a  stem  (Fig.  36,  gray  hornstone,  Tennessee).  It 
may  be  assumed  that  perforators  of  this  form  as  well  as  of  others  which 
afforded  no  firm  grasp  to  the  hand  were  inserted  into  handles. 

e.  Elongated  leaf-shape  (Fig.  37,  gray  semi-opal,  California). 

8.  Scrapers. — Thick  flakes  of  flint,  obsidian,  etc.,  worked  at  one  extremity 
into  a  convex  or  semi-lunar  edge.  Some  are  thus  prepared  at  both  ends. 
These  tools  were  used  in  cleaning  skins,  and  in  scraping  and  smoothing  horn, 
bone,  wood,  etc.  The  Eskimos  still  use  stone  scrapers  set  in  well-shaped 
handles  of  walrus  ivory,  horn,  or  wood.  Several  specimens  of  this  kind  are 
in  the  collection  of  the  National  Museum. 


SCRAPERS  (A) 


a.  Working  edge  beveled  from  one  side,  the  lower  surface  forming  a  con¬ 

tinuous  unaltered  fracture  (Fig.  38,  gray  flint,  Texas).  A  few  are 
beveled  at  both  ends,  and  may  be  called  double  scrapers.  Some  terminate 
in  stems  opposite  the  working  edge  (Fig.  39,  compact  gray  hornstone, 
Ohio) . 

b.  Working  edge  chipped  from  both  sides,  sometimes  at  both  extremities. 

c.  Made  of  the  lower  portions  of  broken  arrow  and  spear-heads;  working 

edge  chipped  from  one  side  or  from  both  (Fig.  40,  yellow  jasper,  Ohio). 

d.  Disc-shaped,  chipped  all  around  (Fig.  41,  bluish  chalcedony,  Texas). 

9.  Cutting  and  Sawing  Implements. — This  group  comprises  a  series  of 
implements  which,  though  differing  in  form,  seem  to  have  been  designed  for 
kindred  purposes. 

a.  Flakes  of  flint  and  obsidian,  more  or  less  chipped  at  the  edges,  apparently 
for  the  purpose  of  being  used  in  cutting  and  sawing  (Fig.  42,  yellow 
jasper,  Kentucky).  The  silicious  materials  out  of  which  such  flakes 
are  usually  made  cannot  be  split  as  regularly  as  the  cretaceous  flint  of 
Europe,  and  hence  the  well-shaped  neolithic  flakes  so  frequent  in  Den¬ 
mark,  Northern  Germany,  etc.,  hardly  find  counterparts  among  the  stone 
tools  occurring  north  of  Mexico.  The  obsidian  flakes  from  the  last- 
named  country,  as  has  been  stated,  are  identical  in  shape  with  the 
corresponding  European  specimens. 


14 


FLAKED  AND  CHIPPED  STONE. 


b.  Implements  with  chipped  convex  edges,  mostly  serrated  at  the  opposite 
side,  or  provided  with  a  row  of  stems,  perhaps  for  being  more  securely 
hafted  (Fig.  43,  gray  flint,  California).  The  specimens  of  this  character 
were  all  obtained  from  California,  where  the  aborigines  are  known  to 
have  employed  asphaltum  for  cementing  their  stone  tools  into  handles. 


CUTTING  TOOLS  Q). 


c.  Small  sickle-shaped  implements  designed,  as  it  seems,  for  some  cutting 

purpose  (Fig.  44,  dark-brown  jasper,  California). 

d.  Crescent-shaped  implements,  some  of  them  truncated  at  one  end ;  probably 

knives  and  saws  (Fig.  45,  lydite,  Pennsylvania).  A  somewhat  similar 
type  occurs  in  Northern  Europe. 

e.  Arrow-head-shaped  (notched  or  stemmed)  implements,  apparently  repre¬ 

senting  sawing  and  cutting  tools,  the  part  used  being  either  one  of  the 
sides  which  is  convex,  or  the  obtuse  point  (Fig.  46,  reddish  jasper,  Ten¬ 
nessee  ;  Tig.  47,  semi-opal,  Georgia). 

f.  Roughly  chipped  implements  with  convex  edges  and  massive  backs.  They 

resemble  the  “choppers”  found  in  some  caves  of  Southern  France,  and 
described  by  Lartet  and  Christy  in  the  “Reliquise  Aquitanicse”  (Fig.  48, 
gray  hornstone,  shell-heap,  Maine). 

10,  Dagger-shaped  Implements, — The  dagger  form  is  ill  most  cases  indi¬ 
cated  rather  than  fully  developed.  There  is,  however,  in  the  collection  a 


SMITHSONIAN  AKCIIvEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


15 


beautiful  specimen  remarkable  for  a  well-wrought  handle  (Fig.  40,  gray  flint, 
mound  in  Alabama).  Similar  objects  are  preserved  in  the  Copenhagen 
Museum. 


DAGGER  (i). 

11.  Leaf-shaped  Implements. — Perhaps  mostly  used  for  cutting  and  scrap¬ 
ing;  some  may  be  unfinished  tools. 


LEAF-SHAPED  IMPLEMENTS. 

a.  Pointed  at  one  end  and  more  or  less  rounded  at  the  other  extremity ;  sides 

straight  or  exhibiting  various  gradations  of  convexity.  Many  specimens 
of  this  class  present  an  almond  shape,  and  are  thin  and  sharp-edged. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  as  to  their  use  as  cutting  tools  (Fig.  50,  light- 
gray  flint,  Ohio). 

b.  Approaching  an  oval  shape. 

c.  Pointed  at  both  ends,  broad  in  the  middle,  or  more  or  less  elongated.  They 

differ  much  in  size,  the  smaller  specimens  being  not  larger  than  arrow¬ 
heads  (Fig.  51,  brown  jasper,  Louisiana;  Fig.  52,  gray  flint,  Ohio). 

d.  Large  flat  implements  of  roundish,  oval,  or  almond  shape,  either  rudely 

blocked  out,  or  chipped  with  more  or  less  care  around  the  circumference. 
Some  appear  slightly  worn  at  the  edge,  as  though  they  had  been  used  for 
scraping  purposes.  They  occur  mostly  in  mounds  and  in  deposits  under 


10 


FLAKED  AND  CIUPPED  STONE. 

the  ground,  sometimes  comprising  many  hundred  specimens.  Such  de¬ 
posits  have  been  met  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Atlantic  States.  The 
implements  in  question  frequently  consist  of  the  peculiar  stone  of  “  Flint 
Kidge,'’  an  elevation  extending  through  Licking  and  Muskingum  Coun¬ 
ties  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  The  material  was  here  quarried  by  the  aborig¬ 
ines,  who  have  left  the  traces  of  their  operations  in  the  shape  of  numerous 
pits  and  of  accumulations  of  chips  heaped  up  around  them.4  Many  of 
the  specimens  closely  resemble  in  shape  and  size  the  “  hatchets  ”  of  the 
Lin  op  can  drift,  which  occur  associated  with  the  remains  of  extinct  ani¬ 
mals  (Fig.  53  represents  a  common  form.  The  original  belonged  to  a 
legular  deposit  ol  about  fifteen  hundred  specimens,  which  was  discovered 
at  Beardstown,  Cass  County,  Illinois). 


12,  Laige  flat  Implements  of  silicious  material,  usually  ovoid  in  shape, 
and  shaip  around  the  circumference,  Some  expand  considerably  at  the 
bioadei  oi  cutting  edge,  exhibiting  a  tapering  or  truncated  opposite  ex¬ 
tremity  (Fig.  54,  fine-grained  quartzite,  Tennessee;  Fig.  54  «,  same  material, 
llhnois)^— The  broad  part  sometimes  appears  almost  glazed  from  constant 
wear.  I  hey  are  supposed  to  have  been  used  as  spades  or  hoes. 


DIGGING  TOOLS  Q). 

13,  Large  flat  Implements  mostly  of  oval  outline,  but  truncated  and 
laterally  notched  at  the  end  opposite  the  working  edge  (Fig.  55,  Illinois).— 


4  The  locality  is  described  in  Squier’s  “Antiquities  of  the  State  of  New  York,”  Buffalo,  1851,  p.  126. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


17 


The  lower  portion  is  often  smoothed  by  wear.  These  implements,  like  the 
preceding  kind,  probably  were  attached  to  handles  and  used  in  digging  the 
ground  for  agricultural  and  other  purposes.  Both  varieties  consist  of  corres¬ 
ponding  materials,  and  sometimes  occur  together  in  mounds  and  subterranean 
deposits. 

14,  Wedge  or  Celt-shaped  Implements, — They  consist  mostly  of  silicious 
materials,  and  bear  some  resemblance  to  the  rough-hewn  flint  celts  of  North¬ 
ern  Europe. 


B.  PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 

1,  Wedges  or  Celts,5 — They  form  a  numerous  class  of  North  American 
implements,  occurring  on  the  surface  of  the  soil  and  occasionally  in  mounds, 
and  were  doubtless  applied  to  different  uses  for  which  their  shape  and  size 
suited  them.  They  are  sometimes  rudely  pecked  or  chipped  into  form,  and 
merely  sharpened  at  the  cutting  edges;  but  in  general  they  are  entirely 
ground,  and  not  a  few  of  them  exhibit  a  beautiful  polish.  Their  length  varies 
from  an  inch  and  an  inch  and  a  half  to  a  foot  and  more.  They  consist  of 
different  kinds  of  stone,  such  as  diorite,  syenite,  hornblende  rock,  serpentine, 
etc.,  and  even  soft  slates  have  sometimes  furnished  their  material.6  Occasion- 


60 


CELTS  (£). 


ally  specimens  made  of  silicious  varieties  (hornstone,  jasper,  lydite)  are  met, 
and  very  small  celts  consisting  of  hematite  occur  in  different  parts  of  the 


5  Prom  the  Latin  word  celtis  or  celtes,  a  chisel. 

6  In  Mexico  celts  of  jade  are  not  unfrequent. 


18 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 

United  States.  They  are  sharp-edged  and  highly  polished,  and  were  evidently 
used  for  cutting  purposes  (Fig.  50  represents  one  of  these  diminutive  hema¬ 
tite  tools,  which  was  found  in  Ohio).  A  cross  section  parallel  with  the 
cutting  edge  of  a  North  American  celt  presents  in  general  a  roundish  or  oval 
outline;  but  some  specimens  are  four-sided,  insomuch  that  a  section  would 
resemble  a  rectangle  with  sharp  or  rounded  angles  and  more  or  less  convex  * 
sides  (Fig.  57,  greenstone,  Indiana).  ,  The  cutting  edges,  nearly  always 
ground  from  both  sides,  are  usually  convex,  and  rarely  straight.  The  butt- 
ends  generally  exhibit  more  or  less  rounded  contours  (Fig.  58,  syenite, 
Illinois ;  Fig.  59,  greenstone,  Tennessee)  ;  but  in  some  specimens  the  butt 
tapers  and  terminates  in  a  blunt  point  (Fig.  GO,  indurated  chlorite  slate, 
Tennessee,  mound).  Some  have  expanding  cutting  edges  (Fig.  61,  Louisiana). 
The  butts  of  many  celts  are  much  battered,  as  though  the  implements  had 
been  employed  in  connection  with  mallets  for  splitting  wood,  etc.;  others  bear 
the  traces  of  having  been  inserted  in  shafts  to  serve  as  axes  or  adzes.  In  rare 
cases  the  extremity  opposite  the  edge  terminates  in  a  sort  of  a  handle  (Fig. 
62,  greenstone,  North  Carolina).  A  few  specimens  of  the  collection  have  a 
cutting  edge  at  each  end. 

2.  Chisels, — Wedge-shaped  implements  of  elongated  form  and  compara¬ 
tively  small  size  have  been  classed  as  chisels,  and  doubtless  were  used  as  such. 
It  does  not  seem  that  they  are  abundant.  Several  specimens  of  the  collec¬ 
tion  have  a  round  circumference  and  a  greater  diameter  in  the  middle  or  at 
the  blunt  end  than  at  the  working  edge.  These  implements,  which  chiefly 
consist  of  greenstone,  may  be  considered  as  typical,  having  been  found  in 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Virginia,  and  Connecticut  (Fig.  63,  diorite,  Ohio).  Others  are 
four-sided  (Fig.  64,  lydite,  New  York),  or  flat  with  rounded  smaller  sides, 
and  a  few  specimens  of  yellow  or  brownish  jasper  exhibit  in  part  the  original 
chipping,  being  only  superficially  ground.  They  might  be  taken  for  Danish 
or  North  German  productions  of  the  stone  age.  Some  chisels  have  working 
edges  at  both  ends.  A  specimen  of  the  collection  marked  “  ice-chisel  ”  (Fig. 
65,  basaltic  material,  Unalaska  Island)  presents  a  peculiar  shape,  terminating 
in  a  sort  of  handle,  which  is,  however,  almost  too  short  for  being  conveniently 
grasped.  There  is  a  possibility  that  the  implement  was  hafted.  (Compare: 
Nilsson,  “  Stone  Age,”  Plate  VI,  Fig.  135). 

3,  Gouges,  —  They  generally  consist  of  materials  similar  to  those  of  which 
celts  are  made;  but  they  occur  in  the  United  States  far  less  frequently  than 
the  latter,  and  appear  to  be  chiefly  confined  to  the  Atlantic  States.  It  is  sup¬ 
posed  that  they  were  employed,  besides  other  uses,  in  the  manufacture  of 
wooden  canoes  and  mortars,  which  the  aborigines  hollowed  out  with  the  assist¬ 
ance  of  fire.  The  gouges  were  well  adapted,  by  their  shape,  for  removing  the 
charred  portions  of  the  wood.  These  implements  vary  in  length  from  three 
inches  to  a  foot.  In  some  the  concavity  is  confined  to  the  lower  part  (Fig. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


19 


66,  dark  hornstone,  New  York);  in  others  it  extends  through  their  whole 
length  (Fig.  67,  Pennsylvania) .  There  are  implements  which,  though  exhib¬ 
iting  no  concavity,  somewhat  partake  of  the  character  of  gouges.  They  can 
be  likened  to  celts  in  which  the  edged  portion  is  plano-convex,  so  as  to  pro¬ 
duce  a  hollow  cut.  They  may,  in  part,  have  served  as  adze-heads.  Certain 


CHISELS,  GOUGES  AND  ADZES  (£)• 


gouge-like  tools  (with  or  without  concavities  at  the  cutting  edge),  which 
are  provided  on  the  convex  side  with  grooves,  ridges,  or  conical  eleva¬ 
tions,  likewise  may  have  formed  the  heads  of  adzes,  the  contrivances  just 
mentioned  facilitating  their  attachment  to  handles  (Fig.  68,  greenstone,  Mass¬ 
achusetts)  . 


4.  Adzes.- — There  are  in  the  Smithsonian  collection  some  unmistakable 
adzes — perhaps  not  very  old — derived  from  the  Northwest  Coast.  One  of 
them  (Fig.  69)  consists  of  a  dark  kind  of  silicious  stone  (hornstone),  and  was 
obtained  in  British  Columbia.  The  method  of  hafting  these  implements  is 
exemplified  by  a  handled  adze  (Fig.  70)  used  by  the  natives  of  Oregon.  The 
head,  consisting  of  greenstone,  is  ten  inches  long,  and  connected  with  the 
wooden  handle  by  means  of  split  twigs  of  some  flexible  kind  of  wood.  There 
are  in  the  collection  other  adzes  from  the  Northwest  Coast,  hafted  in  a  differ¬ 
ent  manner  (Fig.  71).  In  these  specimens  the  small  adze-heads  of  green 
serpentine  are  celt-shaped,  and  rest  against  a  shoulder  of  the  crooked  handle, 
where  they  are  secured  by  strips  of  raw-hide,  or  by  cord. 

u 

5.  Grooved  Axes. — Owing  to  their  frequency,  these  implements  may  be 
counted  among  the  best-known  relics  of  the  aborigines ;  and  especially  in  the 
rural  districts  of  the  older  States  "Indian  stone  tomahawks”  are  familiar 
objects.  In  general  they  can  be  defined  as  wedges  encircled  by  a  groove, 


20 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


usually  nearer  the  butt-end  than  the  edge.  The  groove  served  for  the  recep¬ 
tion  of  a  withe  of  proper  length,  which  was  bent  around  the  stone  head  until 
both  ends  met,  when  they  were  firmly  bound  together  with  ligatures  of  hide 
or  some  other  material.  The  withe  thus  formed  a  convenient  handle.  These 
axes  are  frequently  made  of  varieties  of  greenstone,  though  specimens  con¬ 
sisting  of  syenite,  granite,  porphyry,  sandstone,  etc.,  are  not  rare;  silicious 
materials,  it  seems,  were  not  often  employed.  Now  and  then  a  specimen 
made  of  red  or  brown  hematite  is  met. 


GROOVED  AXES.  HAMMER-HEADS  AND  HAMMER-STONES. 

( Figs.  72-77:  ^  ;  Figs.  7S  and  80  -  82:  -J.) 

Grooved  axes  differ  much  in  size,  the  smallest  in  the  collection  (probably 
toys)  measuring  little  more  than  two  inches  in  length  and  weighing  from 
three  to  four  ounces,  while  the  largest  object  of  this  class,  a  specimen  from 
Illinois  (loaned),  is  thirteen  inches  long,  seven  and  a  half  wide,  and  weighs 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


21 


twenty  pounds  and  a  half.  Such  large  tools  hardly  could  he  wielded  with 
two  hands;  yet  they  must  have  been  employed  in  some  way,  their  edges 
exhibiting  distinct  marks  of  wear.  In  general  the  axes  arc  from  five  to  seven 
inches  long,  weighing  one  and  a  half  or  two  pounds.  In  some  axes  the 
groove  surrounds  the  stone  entirely  (Fig.  72,  greenstone,  Massachusetts),  but 
in  others,  as  it  were,  only  on  three  sides,  the  fourth  side  being  flat,  and  some¬ 
times  even  slightly  hollowed,  apparently  for  resting  on  a  corresponding  flat 
part  of  the  handle  (Fig.  73,  greenstone,  Arizona).  The  groove  is  often  barely 
indicated,  but  deep  and  regular  in  the  specimens  of  the  better  class,  which  are 
symmetrically  shaped  and  well  smoothed,  or  even  polished.  A  few  specimens 
exhibit  two  parallel  grooves.  The  most  finished  Smithsonian  axes,  consisting 
of  a  dark  compact  greenstone,  are  derived  from  Arizona. 

The  grooved  axes,  though  corresponding  in  general  form,  present  many 
varieties.  Their  grooves,  for  instance,  are  sometimes  bounded  by  ridges, 
obviously  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  withe  from  slipping  (Fig.  74, 
greenstone,  South  Carolina).  In  a  number  of  specimens  the  groove  runs 
obliquely  around  the  stone,  which  thus  evidently  formed  an  acute  angle  with 
the  handle  (Fig.  75,  cast,  Wisconsin;  a  specimen  of  unproportionate  length). 
In  rare  cases  the  axes  are  four-sided,  the  butt-end  terminating  in  a  quadrilat¬ 
eral  face  (Fig.  76,  greenstone,  Alaska).  In  general,  however,  the  butt-ends 
present  rounded  contours,  and  often  bear  unmistakable  traces  of  violent  use. 
Now  and  then  they  are  bluntly  pointed.  The  collection  contains  a  few  axes 
with  edges  at  both  extremities.  Occasionally  there  occur  specimens  with  re¬ 
markably  narrow  edges  (Fig.  77,  graywacke,  Pennsylvania). 

The  tools  just  described  are  not  sharp-edged,  and  consequently  were  not 
used  in  cutting  down  trees,  but  they  served  for  deadening  them  by  the  well- 
known  process  of  "girdling.”  When  the  trees  had  become  perfectly  dry, 
they  were  felled  by  the  application  ot  fire,  the  axes  being  again  resorted  to  for 
removing  the  charred  wood.  For  the  same  purpose  they  may  have  been 
employed  in  the  manufacture  of  wooden  canoes.  Specimens  of  small  or 
medium  size  doubtless  were  used  as  battle-axes,  like  the  iron  tomahawk  of 
modern  times. — No.  7253  of  the  collection  is  a  cast  of  the  "inscribed” 
grooved  axe  found  in  1858  on  the  farm  of  Samuel  R.  Gaskill,  in  Burlington 
County,  New  Jersey. 

6.  Hammers. — They  comprise  hammer-heads  and  hammer-stones.  The 
former  consist  of  round  or  oval  pebbles,  or  small  boulders  of  quartzite,  gran¬ 
ite,  greenstone,  and  other  hard  and  tough  materials,  and  often  show  no  other 
modification  by  the  hand  of  man  but  a  groove  for  the  attachment  of  a  handle. 
Some,  however,  are  artificially  brought  to  the  required  shape.  The  groove,  it 
should  be  stated,  is  not  always  carried  entirely  around  the  stone.  Hammer¬ 
heads  vary  much  in  size,  the  smallest  specimens  measuring  only  a  few  inches, 
while  the  large  ones,  designated  as  mauls,  are  so  bulky  and  heavy  that  they 
could  only  have  been  wielded  with  both  hands  (Fig.  78,  granite,  Colorado; 
eleven  pounds) .  Yery  large  mauls  with  one  or  two  grooves,  sometimes  with- 


22 


PECKED,  (« ROUND  AXD  POLISHED  STONE. 


out  any  groove,  have  been  discovered  in  the  ancient  copper  mines  of  the  Lake 
Superior  region.  They  were  the  tools  employed  by  the  aborigines  for  obtain¬ 
ing  the  much-valued  virgin  metal.  Some  hammer-heads  were  evidently  con¬ 
verted  into  their  present  forms  from  grooved  axes  whose  edges  had  been 
damaged  by  fracture  or  by  constant  use.  There  are  in  the  Smithsonian 


collection  some  hafted  mauls  derived  from  the  Sioux  and  Assineboins,  who 
still  use  them  for  breaking  bones,  pounding  pemmican,  etc.  (Fig.  79,  quartzite, 
Assineboins;  two  pounds).  These  tools,  including  their  handles,  are  tightly 
cased  in  raw-hide,  excepting  that  part  of  the  head  which  is  used  for  striking. 
One  of  these  modern  handled  mauls,  derived  from  the  Sioux,  is  rather  heavy, 
Weighing  more  than  nine  pounds.  The  Blackfeet,  Sioux,  and  other  still 
existing  tribes  sometimes  use  war-clubs  with  stone  heads.  The  latter,  con¬ 
sisting  ol  quartzite,  greenstone,  etc.,  are  of  a  more  or  less  elongated  regular 
egg-shape,  well  polished,  and  deeply  grooved  around  the  middle  for  the 
attachment  of  the  handle.  Specimens  of  this  class  and  of  others  are  in  the 
collection.  The  different  kinds  of  stone  war-clubs  in  use  among  the  Indians 
of  our  time  will  be  described  hereafter. 


The  tools  designated  as  hammer-stones  are  mostly  roundish  or  oval  pebbles 
of  a  somewhat  compressed  or  flattened  form,  presenting  in  their  side  view 
the  outline  of  a  more  or  less  elongated  ellipse.  Quartzite  appears  to  be 
the  prevailing  material.  Their  only  artificial  alteration  consists  in  two  pits 
or  cavities,  which  form  the  centres  of  the  opposite  broad  sides  of  the  pebble. 
In  these  cavities  the  workman  placed  the  thumb  and  middle  finger  of  the  right 
hand,  while  the  forefinger  pressed  against  the  upper  circumference  of  the  stone 
(Fig.  80,  quartzite,  New  York;  Fig.  81,  quartzite,  Pennsylvania).  In  some 
instances  the  depressions  are  so  shallow  that  they  almost  escape  observation 
though  specimens  with  deep  and  well-defined  cavities  are  not  rare.  Many 
hammer-stones  bear  distinct  traces  of  rough  use,  being  battered  and  bruised 
at  the  circumference.  Their  longitudinal  diameter  generally  measures  from 
three  to  five  inches,  and  they  may  average  about  a  pound  in  weight. 

In  Europe  similar  hammer-stones  occur,  which  have  been  called  Tilhugger- 
steene  by  Danish  archaeologists,  and  it  has  been  conjectured  that  they  were 
used  as  tools  for  chipping  weapons  and  implements  of  flint.  It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  the  corresponding  American  implements  served  as  hammers, 
since  they  show  the  most  distinct  traces  of  violent  contact  with  hard  sub¬ 
stances,  and  there  is  much  probability  that  they  were  used  in  blocking  out 
flint  implements;  yet  they  are  by  far  too  clumsy,  and  possess  too  much  round¬ 
ness  on  all  sides,  to  have  been  the  tools  for  finishing  barbed  arrow-heads  and 
other  delicate  articles  of  flint.  Quite  different  implements  were  employed  in 
t  hat  operation.7 


7  There  are  in  the  National  Museum  several  of  the  tools  employed  by  modern  Indians  in  the  manufacture 
of  stone  arrow-heads,  perforators,  etc.  These  cliipping-implements  consist  of  bluntly  pointed  rods  of  deer 
horn,  from  eight  to  sixteen  inches  in  length,  or.of  short  slender  pieces  of  the  same  material  bound  with 


sinew  to  wooden  sticks  resembling  arrow-shafts. 


The  aboriginal  “arrow-maker 


holds  in  his  left  hand  the 


flake  of  flint  or  obsidian  on  which  lie  intends  to  operate,  and  presses  the  point  of  the  tool  against  its  ed 
detaching  scale  after  scale,  until  it  assumes  the  desired  form. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


23 


There  are  other  quartzite  hammer-stones,  often  of  rather  irregular  shape,  in 
which  the  cavities  are  wanting.  They  have  undergone  no  alteration,  except¬ 
ing  that  resulting  from  constant  use.  A  peculiar  class  of  hammer-stones 
consists  of  flint  pebbles  roughly  worked  into  a  roundish  flattened  form.  Their 
battered  circumferences  indicate  the  use  to  which  they  were  applied  (Fig.  82, 
flint,  Ohio).  Though  not  in  reality  belonging  to  the  series  of  pecked  or 
ground  implements,  it  has  been  thought  proper  to  mention  them  in  this  place. 
— Certain  stones  resembling  the  indented  hammer-stones,  and  often  classed 
with  them,  evidently  were  used  for  other  purposes.  They  will  be  noticed  in 
connection  with  mortars. 


7,  Drilled  Ceremonial  Weapons. —  The  grooved  tomahawk  was  among  the 
aborigines,  prior  to  the  occupation  of  the  country  by  Europeans  and  their 
descendants,  the  prevailing  implement  of  the  axe  kind;  but  pierced  axe  and 


DRILLED  CEREMONIAL  WEAPONS  (^). 


pick-shaped  objects  also  occur,  though  not  in  great  abundance.  These  relics 
are  for  the  most  part  elegantly  and  symmetrically  shaped,  and  well  polished, 
but  of  such  small  dimensions  that  they  cannot  have  been  applied  to  any  prac- 


21 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 

tical  use.  Their  material,  moreover,  generally  consists  of  soft  kinds  of  stone, 
more  particularly  of  a  gray  or  greenish  slate,  which  is  frequently  marked  with 
dark  parallel  or  concentric  stripes  or  bands.  Yet  specimens  made  of  jasper, 
ferruginous  quartz,  syenite,  and  other  hard  substances  are  not  wanting.  The 
objects  in  question  doubtless  were  provided  with  handles  and  worn  as  weapons 
of  parade  or  insignia  of  rank  by  the  superiors.  They  present  a  great  variety 
of  forms,  bearing  testimony  to  the  ingenuity  and  good  taste  of  their  makers. 
Many  of  them  somewhat  resemble  double  pick-axes  (Fig.  83,  serpentine, 
Virginia ;  Fig.  81,  serpentine,  Pennsylvania;  Fig.  85,  striped  slate,  Wisconsin; 
Fig.  86,  striped  slate,  Indiana;  Fig.  87,  striped  slate,  Pennsylvania);  some 
are  egg-shaped,  and  others  may  be  likened  to  axes  with  two  very  blunt  cut¬ 
ting  edges  (Fig.  88,  cast,  original  probably  brown  jasper,  Louisiana; 8  Fig.  89, 
cast,  Wisconsin).  In  rare  cases  the  parts,  which  would  form  the  cutting  edges 
in  real  implements  are  bifurcated  (Fig.  90,  striped  slate,  fragment;  Indiana), 
and  in  some  objects  here  classed  as  ceremonial  weapons  the  sides  corresponding 
to  edges  exhibit  a  slight  inward  curve  (Fig.  91,  translucent  ferruginous  quartz, 
Indiana).  A  few  specimens  are  crooked,  terminating  in  a  blunt  point  at  one 
extremity,  and  in  a  rounded  butt-end  at  the  other.  These  specimens  are  ex¬ 
ceptions  from  the  general  rule,  not  being  shaped  alike  on  both  sides  (Fig.  92, 
striped  slate,  Indiana). 

The  holes  in  these  implements  have  no  sufficient  width  for  permitting  the 
insertion  of  stout  handles.  They  are  perfectly  regular,  and  the  annular 
striae  produced  by  the  revolving  motion  of  the  drilling  tool  can  often  plainly 
be  distinguished.  Some  specimens,  though  otherwise  finished,  are  either  des¬ 
titute  of  shaft-holes,  or  merely  show  their  beginnings:  a  fact  demonstrating 
that  in  Yorth  America  (as  in  Europe)  articles  of  this  description  were  first 
brought  to  the  required  shape,  and  afterward  drilled.  On  the  whole,  the  ob¬ 
jects  belonging  to  this  class  are  among  the  most  interesting  relics  of  the 
aborigines. 

8.  Cutting  Tools. — Any  sharpened  stone  of  suitable  size  could  be  used  as 
a  cutting  tool,  and  hence  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  implements  of  this  class 
assume  various  forms.  Some  are  of  an  elongated  oval  shape,  both  ends  form¬ 
ing  cutting  edges;  others  have  a  crescent  shape  and  vertical  cutting  edges 
at  both  extremities;  the  most  conspicuous  form,  however,  is  a  flat  knife  with  a 
semi-lunar  edge  and  a  straight  back,  thick  and  projecting  for  greater  conven¬ 
ience  in  handling.  These  knives  chiefly  occur  in  the  Eastern  States,  and  their 
prevailing  material  is  slate  (Fig.  93,  black  slate,  Pennsylvania).  Yet  some¬ 
what  similar  tools,  less  defined  in  shape,  but  likewise  made  of  slate,  were  used 
by  the  aborigines  of  the  ^Northwest  Coast  for  ripping  open  fish.  There  is  in 
the  collection  a  well-defined  cutting  tool  with  a  curved  ed^e  and  a  lateral  tans. 


15  A  beautiful  specimen  in  the  collection,  exhibiting  the  shape  of  Fig.  88,  though  less  elegant  in  outline, 
consists  of  a  translucent  ferruginous  quartz  of  a  pale  reddish  color.  It  was  found,  together  with  the  original 
of  Fig.  91,  in  Indiana,  ten  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ground. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


25 


probably  serving  for  the  attachment  of  a  handle  (Fig.  94,  hard  red  shale, 
Pennsylvania).  Another  specimen  bearing  some  resemblance  to  that  just 
described  is  provided  with  a  handle  of  convenient  length  (Fig.  95,  cast,  Indi¬ 
ana)  . 


9.  Scraper  and  Spade-like  Implements. — There  is  a  class  of  well-finished 
fiattish  implements,  usually  made  of  compact  greenstone,  which  are  formed 
into  a  semi-lunar  edge  on  one  side,  and  terminate  on  the  other  in  a  nearly 


26 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


straight-sided  handle;  a  perforation  marks  the  place  where  the  handle  and  the 
curved  part  of  the  implement  meet  (Fig.  96,  greenstone,  Kentucky).  These 
typical  objects  have  been  classed  as  axes,  though  the  smoothness  of  their 
edges  seems  to  indicate  a  different  mode  of  application.  It  appears  more 
probable  that  they  served  as  scraping  or  smoothing  tools,  and  in  this  case  the 
perforation  may  have  been  designed  for  the  reception  of  a  thong,  which, 
jiassing  around  the  wrist  or  hand  of  the  operator,  enabled  him  to  use  the 
tool  with  greater  force.  There  are,  however,  unperforated  implements  ap¬ 
parently  belonging  to  the  same  class,  in  which  the  handle  is  almost  too  broad 
for  convenient  use  (Fig.  97,  cast,  Arkansas).  A  cast  in  the  collection  de¬ 
serves  particular  mention  in  this  place.  It  is  that  of  a  very  large  tool  with  a 
rounded  much-used  edge,  concave  sides,  and  a  curious  bifurcation  at  the 
extremity  opposite  the  working  part  (Fig.  98,  South  Carolina).  It  is  not 
intended  to  assign  any  definite  use  to  this  remarkable  relic.  In  connection 
with  the  tools  just  mentioned  reference  may  be  made  to  others  somewhat 
resembling  diminutive  spades,  although  it  is  not  asserted  that  they  were  used 
as  such  (Fig.  99,  cast,  South  Carolina).  These  implements  seem  to  be  rare. 
The  best  specimen  known  to  the  writer  (represented  by  a  cast  in  the  collec¬ 
tion)  is  in  possession  of  Dr.  Joseph  Jones,  of  Kew  Orleans,  and  was  found 
by  him  in  a  Tennessee  grave-mound.  It  consists  of  greenstone,  and  measures 
seventeen  inches  and  a  half.9 

10,  Pendants  and  Sinkers. — The  names  "pendants”  and  "plummets”  have 
been  given  to  a  class  of  symmetrically  shaped  and  well-finished  objects,  which 
were  evidently  designed  for  suspension,  though  it  is  not  quite  certain  for  what 
special  purpose  or  purposes  they  were  used.  On  account  of  their  shape  and 
the  pains  bestowed  on  their  production  they  have  been  classed  among  aborig¬ 
inal  ornaments;  yet  the  former  inhabitants  of  this  country  devoted  much 
time  and  labor  to  the  manufacture  of  objects  of  a  useful  character,  and  hence 
it  appears  not  improbable  that  the  articles  in  question  were,  in  part  at  least, 
weights  for  fishing-lines.  These  pendants  or  plummets  usually  consist  of 
hard  materials,  such  as  red  or  brown  hematite,  jasper,  ferruginous  quartz, 
greenstone,  etc.  Some  are  nearly  pear-shaped,  though  more  or  less  elongated, 
and  either  entirely  smooth  (Fig.  100,  hornblende  rock,  Ohio),  or  grooved  near 
the  more  tapering  end  (Fig.  101,  red  hematite,  Tennessee),  or  pierced  with  a 
hole  at  the  same  place  (Fig.  102,  amygdaloid,  Arkansas).  It  is  significant  that 
similarly  shaped  and  pierced  leaden  sinkers  for  fishing-lines  are  sold  in  the 
hardware  stores  of  this  country.  Some  articles  of  the  class  under  notice  ex¬ 
hibit  more  developed  and  really  elegant  outlines  (Fig.  103,  greenstone,  Ohio). 
.V  few  specimens,  apparently  partaking  of  a  kindred  character,  are  of  a  double 
conoid  form  (Fig.  101,  greenstone,  California).  Another  of  the  many  varie¬ 
ties  expands  at  the  upper  end  and  terminates  in  a  knob  (Fig.  10 o,  quartzite, 
Massachusetts) . 


“Figured  iu  “Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,”  by  Charles  C.  Jones,  Plate  XVII,  Fig.  2. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


27 


Specimens  worked  with  less  care  are  not  wanting,  and  among  them  may  be 
mentioned  a  variety  of  an  irregular  roundish  or  oval  shape,  and  characterized 
by  a  knob  at  the  upper  end  (Fig.  10G,  greenstone,  Massachusetts) .  There  is 


PENDANTS  AND  SINKERS. 


much  probability  that  they  served  for  sinking  nets.  Some  Smithsonian  speci¬ 
mens  of  this  description  are  half  a  foot  long  and  weigh  more  than  three 
pounds.  The  character  of  net-sinkers  appears  more  distinct  in  the  types 
following  next,  to  which,  indeed,  that  use  has  been  ascribed  by  common  con- 


28 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


sent,  based  upon  the  fact  that  net- weights  of  corresponding  shapes  are  still 
employed  by  primitive  races  of  man.  Some  are  roundish  stones  of  various 
sizes,  either  worked  or  left  in  their  natural  state,  and  grooved  around  the 
middle  for  fastening  the  strings  or  thongs  by  means  of  which  they  were  con¬ 
nected  with  the  nets  (Fig.  107,  granite,  Rhode  Island;  Fig.  108,  potstone, 
Georgia).  It  is  not  always  easy  to  distinguish  specimens  of  this  description 
from  grooved  hammer-heads.  Occasionally  a  sink-stone  exhibits  two  gioo\es 
which  cross  each  other  at  right  angles  (Fig.  109,  talcose  slate,  Rhode  Island). 
A  small  sinker-like  specimen  of  the  collection  is  decorated  with  engraved 
lines  (Fig.  110,  sandstone,  Oregon).  It  may  not  have  been  a  sinker,  but  an 
ornament  or  an  amulet. 

A  more  simple  kind  of  net-sinkers  consists  of  flattish  pebbles  of  roundish 
or  angular  (generally  indefinite)  shape,  and  of  various  sizes,  which  exhibit  on 
two  opposite  sides  of  the  circumference  an  indentation  or  notch,  more  or  less 
deep,  and  produced  by  blows  (Fig.  Ill,  quartzite,  Pennsylvania;  Fig.  112, 
graywacke,  New  Pork;  Fig.  113,  quartzite,  Pennsylvania).1  In  conclusion, 
the  perforated  net-sinkers  must  be  mentioned.  They  are  generally  made  of 
flat  stones  of  a  roundish  outline,  and  exhibit  in  or  near  the  centre  a  rather 
large  perforation,  which  is  drilled  from  both  sides  in  most  cases  (I1  ig.  Ill, 
micaceous  slate,  California).  These  net-sinkers  are  often  made  of  potstone, 
as,  for  instance,  in  Georgia,  where  they  mark,  as  elsewhere,  the  sites  of  former 
fishing  stations  of  the  Indians.  It  is  not  safe,  however,  to  ascribe  indiscrim¬ 
inately  the  character  of  net-weights  to  all  these  pierced  flat  stones,  considering 
that  many  of  them  may  have  been  otherwise  utilized. 

Much  rarer  than  the  sinkers  just  mentioned  are  others  consisting  of  pebbles 
perforated  with  an  oblique  hole,  not  in  the  centre,  but  nearer  the  circumference 
of  the  stone.  The  hole  is  drilled  from  two  sides,  and  generally  forms  an  ob¬ 
tuse  angle  where  the  perforations  meet  (Fig.  115,  sandstone,  Ohio). 

11.  Discoidal  Stones  and  Implements  of  Kindred  Shape.— The  articles 

enumerated  under  this  head,  notwithstanding  their  resemblance  in  general 
form,  probably  served  for  different  purposes;  but  what  these  purposes  were, 
is  not  always  apparent,  and  the  difficulty  of  classifying  the  objects  in  question 
is  enhanced  by  the  almost  imperceptible  transition  from  one  form  into  another. 
Adair,  Du  Pratz,  Lawson,  and  other  early  writers  have  described  an  Indian 
game,  in  which  many  of  the  so-called  discoidal  stones  may  have  been  em¬ 
ployed.  That  game  is  likewise  referred  to  by  Lewis  and  Clarke,  Catlin, 
Murray,  and  other  travelers  of  more  recent  times.  Speaking  of  the  games 
in  vogue  among  the  Cherokees,  Adair  describes  that  diversion  in  the  following 
words : 

”  The  warriors  have  another  favorite  game  called  ChungJce ,  which,  with 
propriety  of  language,  may  be  called  '  Running  hard  labor.’  I  hey  have  near 


10  The  writer  has  seen  specimens  with  four  and  more  indentations. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCILZEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


29 


their  state-house  a  square  piece  of  ground  well  cleaned,  and  fine  sand  is  care¬ 
fully  strewed  over  it,  when  requisite,  to  promote  a  swifter  motion  to  what  they 
throw  along  the  surface.  Only  one  or  two  on  a  side  play  at  this  ancient  game. 
They  have  a  stone  about  two  fingers  broad  at  the  edge,  and  two  spans  round; 
each  party  has  a  pole  of  about  eight  feet  long,  smooth  and  tapering  at  each 
end,  the  points  flat.  They  set  off  abreast  of  each  other  at  six  yards  from  the 
end  of  the  play-ground;  then  one  of  them  hurls  the  stone  on  its  edge,  in  as 
direct  a  line  as  he  can,  a  considerable  distance  toward  the  middle  of  the  other 
end  of  the  square;  when  they  have  ran  a  few  yards,  each  darts  his  pole 
anointed  with  bear’s  oil,  with  a  proper  force,  as  near  as  he  can  guess  in  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  motion  of  the  stone,  that  the  end  may  lie  close  to  the  stone ; 
when  this  is  the  case,  the  person  counts  two  of  the  game,  and,  in  proportion 
to  the  nearness  of  the  poles  to  the  mark,  one  is  counted,  unless  by  measuring, 
both  are  found  to  be  at  an  equal  distance  from  the  stone.  In  this  manner  the 
players  will  keep  running  most  part  of  the  day,  at  half  speed,  under  the  v  io¬ 
lent  heat  of  the  sun,  staking  their  silver  ornaments,  their  nose,  finger,  and 
ear-rings;  their  breast,  arm,  and  wrist-plates,  and  even  all  their  wearing 
apparel,  except  that  which  barely  covers  their  middle.  All  the  American 
Indians  are  much  addicted  to  this  game,  which  to  us  appears  to  be  a  task 


DISCOID  AL  STONES  (4). 


of  stupid  drudgery:  it  seems,  however,  to  be  of  early  origin,  when  them  fore¬ 
fathers  used  diversions  as  simple  as  their  manners.  The  liurlmg-stones  they 
use  at  present  were,  time  immemorial,  rubbed  smooth  on  the  rocks,  and  wit  r 
prodigious  labor;  they  are  kept  with  the  strictest  religious  care  from  one 


30 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


generation  to  another,  and  are  exempted  from  being  buried  with  the  dead. 
They  belong  to  the  town  where  they  are  used,  and  are  carefully  preserved.”11 

There  are  several  kinds  of  discoidal  stones  which  may  have  served  in  the 
Chung-kee  game.  Some  are  quite  large,  measuring  six  inches  and  more  in 
diameter,  and  bearing  a  very  regular  dish-shaped  cavity  on  each  side.  Their 
material  is  often  a  beautiful  (sometimes  translucent)  ferruginous  quartz,  and 
specimens  made  of  this  mineral  appear  to  be  more  numerous  in  Tennessee 
than  in  other  States  of  the  Union.  The  roundness  and  general  regularity  of 
many  objects  of  this  class  hardly  can  be  surpassed,  and  not  few  of  them  are 
beautifully  polished.  In  some  the  outer  circumference  appears  more  or  less 
convex,  though  straight-sided  specimens  are  not  wanting  (Fig.  116,  yellow- 
brown  ferruginous  quartz,  Tennessee;  Fig.  117,  brown  ferruginous  quartz, 
Tennessee;  Fig.  118,  dark  greenstone,  mound  in  Illinois).  In  a  number  of 
the  stones,  supposed  to  have  been  used  in  the  Chung-kee  game,  the  cavities 
on  both  sides  are  carried  somewhat  deeper  than  in  the  preceding  kind,  and 
their  centre  is  marked  by  a  perforation  (Fig.  119,  cast,  Ohio;  Fig.  120,  quart¬ 
zite,  Ohio).  These  central  holes  sometimes  attain  a  comparatively  large  size, 
imparting  to  the  objects  a  ring-like  character,  in  which  cases  it  is  impossible 
to  state,  with  any  plausibility,  whether  the  specimens,  which  are,  moreover, 
often  somewhat  rudely  shaped,  served  as  Chung-kee  stones,  as  net-sinkers,  or 
for  other  purposes. 

Some  stones,  supposed  to  have  been  used  in  the  Indian  game,  show  flat  or 
slightly  convex  circular  faces,  and  perpendicular  or  even  oblique  circumfer¬ 
ences  (Fig.  121,  quartzose  stone,  Georgia).12  Stones  of  this  description  have 
been  called  "weights,”  on  account  of  their  resemblance  to  the  iron  weights  in 
common  use.  There  are  in  the  collection  similarly  shaped  stone  discs  of  small 
size,  in  some  cases  measuring  hardly  more  than  an  inch  in  diameter.  Though 
too  diminutive  to  have  served  in  the  Chung-kee  game  as  practised  by  adults, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  children  employed  them  for  the  same  purpose,  if, 
indeed,  they  were  not  designed  for  an  altogether  different  kind  of  game  (Fig. 
122,  argillaceous  material,  Pennsylvania).13  In  some  instances  the  discoidal 
stones  assume  a  lenticular  shape,  the  periphery  being  represented  by  a  rounded 
edge  (Fig.  123,  ferruginous  quartz,  Texas). 

The  hollowed  discs  before  described  have  now  and  then  been  taken  for 
mortars  in  which  paint  or  other  substances  were  pulverized,  and  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  the  concavities  in  a  few  lends  some  probability  to  that  supposition. 
In  those  cases,  however,  they  were  made  to  serve  a  secondary  purpose.  Speei- 
mens  with  convex  or  flat  faces,  again,  probably  were  often  utilized  as  mealing- 
stoncs,  or  for  grinding  other  substances,  and  some  of  them  may  have  origin¬ 
ally  been  fashioned  for  such  ends. 

The  discoidal  stones  of  the  perforated  kind  pass  over  by  slow  degrees  into 


“Adair:  History  of  tlic  American  Indians,  London,  1775,  p.  401. 

12 See  Du  Pratz:  Histoire  de  la  Louisiane,  Paris,  1758,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  2. 

13 Somewhat  similar  discs,  made  of  broken  clay  vessels,  are  often  found  on  the  sites  of  Indian  settlements. 


SMITHSONIAN  AECILEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


31 


the  ring-form,  a  type  exemplified  by  a  large  number  of  specimens  obtained 
from  the  Californian  islands  forming  the  Santa  Barbara  group.  These  rings, 
composed  of  sandstone,  serpentine,  potstone,  etc.,  vary  much  in  size  and  char¬ 
acter  of  workmanship.  Some  are  not  more  than  an  inch  and  a  half  in  diame¬ 
ter,  others  measure  as  much  as  five  inches.  There  are  flat  specimens  not 


CLUB  ITEAD  SnArED  STONES  (4). 


exceeding  half  an  inch  in  thickness,  while  others  are  massive,  presenting  a 
more  or  less  compressed  globular  form.  There  is  also  much  difference  in  the 
width  of  the  perforations,  which  are,  however,  smooth  and  round  in  most 
cases,  though  exceptionally  of  an  oval  shape.  The  great  variety  of  forms 
exhibited  in  these  perforated  objects  defies  all  attempts  to  assign  to  them 
anything  like  a  definite  use.  The  more  bulky  specimens  somewhat  bear  the 
character  of  club-heads,  and  may  have  been  employed  as  such.14  Some  are 
of  a  spherical  or  conoidal  shape,  and  in  the  latter  the  perforation  is  drilled  in 
the  direction  of  the  longer  axis.  In  many  the  prominent  part  of  the  periphery 
bears  the  marks  of  rough  use  (Fig.  124,  hornblende  rock,  Santa  Catalina 
Island,  California;  Fig.  125,  greenstone,  Santa  Rosa  Island,  California).  A 
few  of  these  specimens  are  of  a  flattened  pear  shape,  the  perforation  running 
in  the  direction  of  the  shorter  axis  (Fig.  126,  serpentine,  Santa  Rosa  Island).15 
The  writer  is  not  aware  of  the  occurrence  of  such  relics  in  the  eastern  or 
middle  portions  of  the  United  States. 

The  collection  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution  contains  a  series  of  globular 
and  egg-shaped  stones  (mostly  natural  formations)  of  suitable  size  to  represent 


14  It  has  also  been  suggested  that  they  served  as  weights  for  digging-sticks. 

15 Through  the  agency  of  Mr.  Paul  Schumacher  the  National  Museum  has  been  enriched  with  a  large 
number  of  valuable  relics  from  the  Californian  islands  of  San  Miguel,  Santa  Cruz,  San  Nicolas,  and  Santa 
Catalina,  and  from  various  points  on  the  main-land,  embraced  in  the  Counties  of  San  Luis  Obispo  and  Santa 
Barbara.'  A  place  called  Dos  Piieblos  in  the  last-named  district  has  furnished  many  remarkable  objects. 
The  relics  occurred  in  graves  and  on  the  surface.  Many  are  evidently  very  old;  others  exhibit  a  more  recent 
appearance,  and  some  of  these  have  been  found  in  graves  with  articles  of  European  manufacture  (iron 
knives,  objects  of  brass,  beads  of  glass  and  enamel,  etc.),  proving  that  they  are  referable  to  the  aborigines 
whom  the  whites  found  in  possession  of  those  islands  and  the  neighboring  coast.  It  has  been  thought  proper 
to  include  these  products  of  Indian  art  in  the  archaeological  series.  The  islands  have  been  totally  vacated 
by  the  Indians,  the  last  of  whom,  ten  in  number,  were  removed,  about  forty  years  ago,  to  the  Santa  Barbara 
mission  on  terra  firma.  A  few  only  are  now  and  then  seen  in  the  neighborhood.  Mr.  II.  II.  Bancroft  men¬ 
tions  in  his  work,  entitled  “The  Native  Eaces  of  the  Pacific  States,”  the  names  of  some  of  the  tribes 
formerly  inhabiting  the  localities  in  question  (Vol.  I,  p.  459,  etc.).  The  graves  of  Dos  Pueblos,  it  should  be 
stated,  were  also  explored  by  Dr.  II.  C.  Yarrow. 


32  PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 

club-heads,  and  the  manner  in  which  some  of  them,  perhaps,  were  utilized, 
is  illustrated  hy  a  number  of  weapons  obtained  from  existing  tribes.  There 
is,  for  instance,  a  Sioux  war-club  with  a  round  stone  head  about  three 
inches  in  diameter,  and  a  wooden  handle  nearly  two  feet  long,  the  stone 
as  well  as  the  handle  being  enclosed  in  a  tightly  fitting  covering  of  raw-hide 
sewed  together  with  strong  sinew.  A  loop  at  the  end  of  the  handle  serves 
for  attaching  the  weapon  to  the  wrist.  Another  hind  of  stone  war-club, 
represented  by  a  number  of  specimens  in  the  collection,  is  still  in  use  among 
the  Apaches,  Shoshonees,  and  other  tribes.  It  consists  of  a  shin-covered  stone 
ball,  from  two  to  nearly  three  inches  in  diameter,  and  connected  by  short 
thongs  with  a  wooden  handle,  from  eight  to  twelve  inches  in  length,  lihewise 
covered  with  leather,  and  provided  with  a  loop  at  the  lowei  end.  The  inc¬ 
lude  casing  of  these  weapons,  which  resemble  the  "morning-stars”  seen 
in  European  collections  of  mediaeval  armor,  consists  of  one  -piece,  tahen 
from  the  caudal  portion  of  a  bovine.  The  handle  is  encased  in  the  close- 
fitting  shin  of  the  animal’s  tail,  a  dangling  tuft  of  its  hair  occasionally  form¬ 
ing  an  ornamental  appendage  to  the  weapon.16 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention  in  this  place  certain  stones  of  quartzite,  etc., 
worhcd  into  a  regular  egg-shape,  from  two  to  three  inches  in  longitudinal 
diameter,  and  slightly  truncated  at  the  more  pointed  end,  so  as  to  allow  the 
stone  to ’stand  upright  on  its  base.  They  may  have  been  employed  as  club- 
heads,  though  it  appears  just  as  probable  that  they  were  used  in  some  game, 
or  perhaps  as  targets  to  be  shot  at  with  arrows  for  the  sake  of  practice. 
Placed  upright  on  a  pole,  they  would  fall  down  when  touched  by  a  missile. 
The  specimens  in  the  collection  are  all  derived  from  Georgia.17 

12,  Pierced  Tablets  and  Boat-shaped  Articles.— A  rather  numerous  class 
of  aboriginal  relics  consists  of  variously  shaped  tablets  of  gieat  regulaiity 
and  careful  finish,  pierced  with  one,  two,  or  more  round  holes.  They  are 
mostly  made  of  slate,  and  the  greenish  striped  variety  before  mentioned  seems 
to  have  been  preferred  by  the  makers.  A  very  common  form  is  that  of  a 
rectangle,  with  sides  exhibiting  a  slight  outward  curve.  Other  tablets  are 
lozenge-shaped  with  inwardly  curved  sides,  oval,  cruciform,  etc.  Most  of 
them  have  two  perforations,  though  specimens  with  only  one  are  not  rare, 
while  those  that  have  more  than  two  holes  are  of  less  frequent  occurrence. 
The  holes  are  drilled  either  from  one  side  or  from  both,  and,  accordingly,  of 
conical  or  bi-conical  shape.  They  seldom  have  more  than  one-eighth  of  an 
inch  in  diameter.  In  some  tablets  the  edges  are  marked  with  notches,  which 
may  be  either  ornamental,  or  designed  for  enumeration.  (Fig.  127,  slate, 
Kew  York;  Fig.  128,  slate,  Pennsylvania;  Fig.  129,  cast,  Louisiana;  Fig. 
130,  slate,  Tennessee;  Fig.  131,  slate,  Tennessee;  Fig.  132,  striped  slate, 


16  The  clubs  here  mentioned  will  be  figured  hereafter. 

17 These  egg-shaped  stones  have  been  noticed  in  the  “Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians”  by  Charles  C. 
Jones. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


33 


Tennessee).  Concerning  the  destination  of  the  tablets  nothing  is  definitely 
known.  At  first  sight,  one  might  be  inclined  to  consider  them  as  objects  of 
ornament,  or  as  badges  of  distinction;  but  this  view  is  not  corroborated  by 
the  appearance  of  the  perforations,  which  exhibit  no  trace  of  that  peculiar 


PIERCED  TABLETS  AND  BOAT-SHAPED  ARTICLES  (’). 


abrasion  produced  by  constant  suspension.  The  classification  of  the  tablets 
as  gorgets,”  therefore,  appears  to  be  erroneous.  There  are,  indeed,  pei- 
forated  tablets  which  unquestionably  were  worn  as  ornaments ;  but  they  will 
be  considered  hereafter.  Schoolcraft  regards  the  objects  under  notice  as  im¬ 
plements  for  twine-making.  According  to  another  conjecture  they  were 
used  in  condensing  and  rounding  bow-strings,  by  drawing  the  wet  strips  of 
hide,  or  the  sinews  employed  for  that  purpose,  through  the  perforations.  It 
is  suggestive  that  the  Indians  of  Southeastern  Nevada  have  been  seen  using 
similar  pierced  tablets  for  giving  uniform  size  to  their  bow-strings.18  There 
are  in  the  collection  some  flattened  stones  of  less  symmetrical  outline,  pierced 
with  a  number  of  holes  which  are  rather  irregularly  distributed,  but  equal  in 
size  to  those  observed  in  the  tablets  just  described  (Fig.  133,  potstone,  Penn- 


18  Smithsonian  Report  for  1870,  p.  404. 


34.  PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 

svlvania).  Like  many  other  aboriginal  relics,  pierced  tablets  occur  in  sepul¬ 
chral  mounds  as  well  as  on  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Those  taken  from 
mounds  are  said  to  have  mostly  been  found  by  the  side  of  the  skeleton,  or 
near  the  bones  of  the  hand. 

Allied  to  the  pierced  tablets  are  certain  boat-shaped  articles,  either  solid  or 
hollowed  on  one  side,  and  perforated  with  two  holes,  mostly  of  conical  form, 
and  placed  near  the  middle  or  the  extremities  of  the  objects.  These  relics, 
though  agreeing  in  general  character,  differ  much  in  the  details  of  their  execu¬ 
tion, "some  being  of  nearly  oval,  others  of  rectangular  outline,  while  the  cavity, 
when  it  occurs,  is  sometimes  shallow,  but  in  other  cases  so  deep  as  to  give  the 
object  almost  the  appearance  of  a  shell.  In  a  few  instances  the  perforations 
are  altogether  wanting.  Such  specimens,  however,  may  have  remained  m  an 
unfinished  state.  The  objects  in  question  are  nearly  always  well  fashioned 
and  polished,  their  material  consisting  sometimes  of  porpliyritic  syenite, 
greenstone,  etc.,  but  occasionally  of  softer  substances,  such  as  slates,  among 
which  the  striped  variety  seems  to  prevail.  Their  purpose,  probably,  was 
similar  to  that  for  which  the  pierced  tablets  were  designed  (Fig.  134,  striped 
slate,  Ohio;  Fig.  135,  greenstone,  Kentucky). 


13,  Stones  used  in  Grinding  and  Polishing.— There  are  in  the  archeolog¬ 
ical  department  of  the  National  Museum  many  stones  marked  with  hollow 


STONES  USED  IN  GRINDING,  ETC.  Q). 


faces,  grooves,  or  notches,  which  were  apparently  produced  bv  the  giinding 
or  sharpening  of  tools,  or  by  the  process  of  smoothing  and  condensing  coids 
of  animal  or  vegetable  material.  The  more  special  uses  of  these  relics  aie 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


35 


not  quite  obvious  in  many  cases.  Certain  flattish  stones  which  are  furrowed 
with  grooves  radiating  toward  the  circumference,  may  have  been  used  in  the 
preparation  of  cords  (Fig.  136,  quartzose  rock,  New  Jersey).  On  other  stones 
are  seen  straight  grooves  of  suitable  size  for  straightening  and  rounding  the 
shafts  of  arrows  (Fig.  137,  chlorite  slate,  Massachusetts;  Fig.  138,  com¬ 
pact  chlorite,  Mexico;  Fig.  139,  hornblende  rock,  Southern  Utah;  probably 
recent).  The  most  conspicuous  specimen  of  this  class  is  a  heavy  limestone 
block,  bearing  on  its  surface  seven  deep  straight  grooves  from  eight  to 
ten  inches  in  length.  This  specimen  was  found  in  Onondaga  County,  New 
York. 

In  lieu  of  the  grooved  stones  some  Indian  tribes  of  our  time  employ  for 
fashioning  their  arrow-shafts  short  wooden  sticks  hollowed  longitudinally 
and'  coated  on  the  inner  side  with  a  cement  of  coarse  quartz  sand  and  glue. 
This  aboriginal  contrivance  is  illustrated  in  the  collection  by  several  speci¬ 
mens  obtained  from  the  nearly  extinct  Mandan  tribe. 


i 


STONES  USED  IN  TOLISHING. 

No  group  of  aboriginal  relics,  perhaps,  is  more  difficult  to  describe  than  the 
stones  which  have  apparently  served  for  polishing  implements  or  parts  of  im¬ 
plements  of  stone,  horn,  bone,  etc.,  and,  probably,  for  smoothing  leather  and 
other  soft  substances.  In  many  cases  it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that 
stones  supposed  to  have  been  used  in  those  operations  were  otherwise  em¬ 
ployed.  The  difficulty  of  classing  these  tools  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
totally  unfixed  character  of  their  appearance,  for  nearly  every  stone  of  suitable  . 
size  and  furnished  with  a  smooth  surface  could  be  utilized  as  a  polisher. 
There  is,  for  instance,  in  the  collection  a  piece  of  yellowish  jasper,  about  three 
inches  and  a  half  in  diameter,  which  exhibits  eight  perfectly  smooth  and  even 
facets,  each  of  which  presents  a  different  form.  It  is  difficult  to  assign  to  this 
stone  any  other  use  than  that  of  a  polisher.  The  collection  contains  several 
specimens  of  similar,  though  less  striking,  character.  Other  polishers  are 
regularly  shaped  and  carefully  worked,  and  nothing  indicates  their  application 
as  polishing  tools  but  the  smoothness  of  those  parts  with  which  the  operation 
was  performed.  One  specimen  presents  the  outline  ot  an  oval  with  truncated 
ends,  which,  to  judge  from  their  glossy  appearance,  were  used  in  the  polishing 


3G  .  PECKED,  GIlOUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 

process  (Fig.  140,  quartzose  rock,  Indiana).  There  is  a  cast  in  the  collection, 
presenting  the  fac-simile  of  a  Hat  implement  of  rhomboidal  outline,  showing 
very  glossy  side-surfaces  which  seem  to  have  hcen  used  in  polishing  (I  ig. 
141,  Louisiana).  Other  specimens  are  shaped  like  very  flat  celts  of  equal 
thickness,  in  which,  as  it  appears,  the  blunt  edges  formed  the  working  parts. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  specimens  of  this  form  were  intended  for  other 
operations.  A  curious  class  of  implements  supposed  to  have  served  as  polish¬ 
ers,  consists  of  stick  or  club-shaped  stones — mostly  natural  formations,  but 
sometimes  modified  by  art — which  bear  at  their  ends  the  marks  of  friction 
(Fig.  142,  lydite,  Pennsylvania). 

14,  Stone  Vessels. — Though  nearly  all  classes  of  aboriginal  relics  are  rep¬ 
resented  on  a  large  scale  in  the  National  Museum,  the  series  of  vessels  of 
stone  is  particularly  distinguished  by  the  number  as  well  as  by  the  diversity 
of  the  specimens.  The  most  elaborate  objects  of  this  kind  are  derived  from 
the  Californian  islands  (San  Miguel,  Santa  Cruz,  Santa  Catalina,  etc.),  and 
from  the  opposite  coast,  a  region  where  the  aborigines  excelled  in  various 
kinds  of  manufactures. 


STONE  VESSELS  Q). 


It  appears  that  vessels  consisting  of  hard  kinds  of  stone  occur  rarely 
in  that  part  of  the  United  States  which  lies  east  of  the  Pocky  Mountains.  In 
the  Atlantic  and  Middle  States,  however,  vessels  made  of  the  comparatively 
soft  potstone  (commonly  called  soapstone — the  lapis  ollaris  of  the  ancients) 
have  often  been  met.  They  differ,  of  course,  in  shape  and  workmanship,  some 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


37 


being  rather  uncouth  specimens  of  aboriginal  art;  others,  again,  are  tolerably 
well  formed,  and  betoken  no  small  degree  of  perseverance  on  the  part  of  their 
makers.  Most  of  those  seen  by  the  writer  were  of  an  elongated  shape,  some¬ 
what  like  a  boat  or  a  trough,  and  provided  with  projections  or  handles  at  the 
opposite  narrower  extremities  (Fig.  143,  Massachusetts).  A.  bowl-shaped 
vessel  from  Wyoming  Territory  (Fig.  144)  is  made  ot  the  same  matciial. 
By  far  the  best  potstone  vessels,  however,  have  been  found  in  the  Californian 
districts  before  mentioned.19  Among  them  are  nearly  globular  cooking  a  esscls 
with  rather  narrow  apertures  encircled  by  raised  rims.  Some  ot  them  measuie 
more  than  a  foot  in  height  and  fifteen  inches  in  diameter,  and  their  thickness, 
about  five-eighths  of  an  inch  at  the  rim,  gradually  increases  toward  the  bottom. 
These  utensils  are  admirable  specimens  of  Indian  skill,  being  almost  as  legu- 
lar  in  outline  as  though  they  had  been  produced  with  the  assistance  of  the 
turner’s  wheel  (Fig.  145,  Dos  Pueblos,  Santa  Barbara  County).  Other  Cali¬ 
fornian  potstone  vessels  of  large  size  present  the  shape  of  high  bowls.  One 
of  them  is  pierced  with  two  small  holes  near  the  rim,  evidently  for  repairing 
the  damage  produced  by  a  crack  (Fig.  146,  Dos  Pueblos).  Among  the  smallei 
vessels  made  of  the  same  material,  and  obtained  from  the  same  region,  may 
be  mentioned  one  which  is  formed  in  the  shape  of  a  boat  (1  ig.  147,  Santa 
Cruz  Island).  Serpentine  was  likewise  employed  by  the  Californian  aboiigines 
as  the  material  for  vessels,  such  as  cups,  bowls,  etc.,  which  are  in  no  way  in¬ 
ferior  to  those  made  of  potstone,  and  even  surpass  them  by  being  well  polished 
(Fig.  148,  serpentine,  San  Miguel  Island) .  It  seems,  however,  that  only  small 
or  medium-sized  objects  of  this  class  were  made  of  serpentine.  A  small  Cali¬ 
fornian  sandstone  vessel  with  an  oval  aperture,  and  deeply  hollowed,  probably 
served  as  a  drinking  cup  (Fig.  149,  Santa  Cruz  Island). 


STONE  PLATES  (£). 

It  may  not  be  altogether  out  of  place  to  mention  in  connection  with  stone 
vessels  a  class  of  remarkable  stone  plates,  which  possibly  may  have  pertained 
to  the  culinary  utensils  of  the  aborigines.  One  of  the  specimens  is  a  perfectly 


i»  These  stone  vessels  as  well  as  the  Californian  mortars  and  pestles  described  on  the  following  pages 
were  recovered  from  graves  by  Mr.  Paul  Schumacher. 


38 


RECKED,  GROUND  AND  ROLISIIED  STONE. 


flat  and  well-smoothed  stone  plate  of  circular  shape,  three-eighths  of  an  inch 
in  thickness,  and  measuring  a  little  less  than  ten  inches  in  diameter.  An 
incised  line  runs  parallel  with  the  circumference,  which  is  further  ornamented 
with  nine  rather  irregularly  distributed  notches  (Fig.  150,  graywacke,  mound 
in  Alabama).  Another  specimen  of  the  same  character  (derived  from  the 
same  locality)  measures  only  eight  inches  in  diameter,  and  is  ornamented  with 
three  engraved  parallel  rings  and  twenty-one  notches  around  the  periphery. 
A  third  elaborately  finished  stone  plate  is  of  a  rectangular  shape,  and  bears 
as  ornaments  incised  lines  which  run  parallel  with  the  sides,  forming  three 
rectangles,  and  six  notches  on  each  of  the  smaller  sides  (Fig.  151,  material 
and  locality  the  same).  It  would  be  impossible,  of  course,  to  state  the  exact 
use  of  such  plates,  and  it  remains  undecided  whether  they  served  as  griddles, 
or  as  plates  for  holding  solid  food,  or  for  some  ceremonial  or  other  purpose. 
A  roughly  worked  plate  of  clay-slate,  nearly  rectangular  in  outline,  and  meas¬ 
uring  about  seven  inches  by  five,  was  found  in  an  Indian  grave  in  Tennessee 
near  the  skull  (No.  16T99  of  the  collection).  This  plate  and  the  more  elab¬ 
orate  specimens  just  described  possibly  were  designed  for  the  same  use. 

There  are  further  to  be  mentioned  slightly  concave  perforated  plates  of  dif¬ 
ferent  sizes  and  shapes,  with  angles  rounded  by  the  action  of  the  elements 
rather  than  by  art.  They  consist  of  potstone,  and  were  obtained  from  Cali¬ 
fornia  (Fig.  152,  Santa  Cruz  Island) .  The  character  of  the  curvature  in  these 
Californian  plates  seems  to  indicate  that  they  were  made  from  broken  vessels. 
An  explanation  of  their  special  use  is  not  attempted  for  the  present. 

15,  Mortars,— The  mortars  and  mortar-like  utensils  form  a  particularly 
rich  and  varied  series  in  the  National  Museum,  embracing  all  forms  and 
sizes,  from  the  diminutive  cup-shaped  stone  with  a  cavity  not  large  enough 
to  hold  a  hazelnut,  and  apparently  used  for  grinding  pigments,  to  the 
ponderous  deeply  hollowed  vessel  designed  to  withstand  the  operation  of  the 
heavy  stone  pestle.  The  cultivation  of  maize  among  the  aboriginal  tribes 
spread  over  the  eastern  area  of  the  present  United  States  necessitated  the 
application  of  grinding  utensils,  which  are,  therefore,  not  unfrequently  found 
on  the  sites  of  their  former  settlements.  They  are  stone  slabs  or  boulders 
exhibiting  shallow  concavities,  or  real  mortars  hollowed  to  a  depth  sufficient 
to  hold  a  quantity  of  the  cereal.  It  is  shown,  however,  by  the  occurrence  of 
circular  cavities  in  projecting  ledges  of  rocks,  or  in  large  immovable  boulders, 
that  the  aborigines  sometimes  dispensed  with  portable  mortars.  Such  station¬ 
ary  contrivances  for  triturating  grain  have  been  noticed  in  many  localities  where 
the  Indians  formerly  dwelt.  They  used  also  large  wooden  mortars  hollowed 
with  the  assistance  of  fire,  as  described  by  Adair  in  his  "History  of  the 
American  Indians”  (p.  416).  Some  wooden  mortars,  made  by  the  Iroquois, 
may  be  seen  in  the  ethnological  department  of  the  National  Museum.  They 
are  cylindrical,  twenty-six  inches  high,  and  a  little  more  than  fifteen  in  diame¬ 
ter.  The  rounded  cavity  has  a  depth  of  about  one  foot.  The  wooden  pestles 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION 


39 


used  in  connection  with,  them  measure  more  than  four  feet  in  length.  fV 
wooden  Mohave  mortar  of  the  collection  is  not  quite  so  large,  and  not  cylin¬ 
drical,  but  somewhat  tapering  toward  the  bottom.  In  this  specimen  the  hol¬ 
lowing  by  fire  is  distinctly  perceivable. 


153 


MORTARS  AND  KINDRED  UTENSILS  Q). 


By  far  the  best  stone  mortars  in  the  Museum  have  been  obtained  from  the  Cal¬ 
ifornian  islands  and  the  neighboring  coast,  more  especially  from  Dos  Pueblos. 
They  are  made  of  a  compact  sandstone  which,  though  of  sufficient  hardness 
could  be  worked  with  tolerable  ease.  Some  of  these  mortars  are  mere  boulders 
hollowed  to  the  proper  depth  (Fig.  153,  San  Nicolas  Island;  Fig.  154,  same 
locality);  others  have  been  modified  to  a  certain  extent  (Fig.  155,  same 


20  a  drawing  of  an  Iroquois  mortar  with  pestle  is  given  in  Morgan’s 
1851,  p.  371. 


“League  of  the  Iroquois,”  Rochester, 


< 


40 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


locality).  Not  a  few  of  them,  however,  are  of  a  remarkably  symmetrical  shape, 
and  their  production,  notwithstanding  the  tractable  character  of  the  material, 
must  have  been  the  result  of  long-continued  patient  labor.  Many  measure 
more  than  a  foot  in  height,  and  nearly  twenty  inches  in  diameter  at  the  widest 
part.  They  are  about  an  inch  and  three-fourths  thick  at  the  rim,  but  increase 
slightly  in  thickness  toward  the  bottom.  The  very  regular  cavity  in  these 
mortars  reaches  a  depth  of  nine  and  a  half  inches  (Fig.  156,  Dos  Pueblos). 
In  a  number  of  the  mortars  the  flat  rim  was  inlaid  with  small  pieces  of 
shell,  some  of  which  are  still  in  place.  They  were  cemented  into  the  stone 
by  means  of  asphaltum.  A  mortar  of  rather  small  size,  but  shaped  like  the 
larger  specimens,  exhibits  on  its  outer  side  a  raised  zigzag  ornamentation 
(Fig.  157,  Santa  Cruz  Island). 

The  mortars  thus  far  described  were  used  in  connection  with  pestles,  or, 

perhaps,  sometimes  with 
rounded  stones  fitting  in 


their  cavities,  and  thus  form¬ 
ing  crushing  tools  rather 
than  pounders.  Other  uten¬ 
sils  of  a  somewhat  kin¬ 
dred  character  are  trough- 
shaped,  and  the  grinding 
operation  was  performed  by 
pressing  a  stone  of  suitable 
form  forward  and  backward 
in  the  elongated  cavity. 
Several  specimens  of  this 
description  are  in  the  col¬ 
lection.  They  were  obtain¬ 
ed  (chiefly  through  the 
agency  of  Major  J.  "W\ 
Powell)  from  Utah  Terri¬ 
tory,  where  such  utensils, 
which  resemble  in  general 
character  the  Mexican  me- 
tate ,  are  still  used  by  the 
aborigines  (Fig.  158,  sand¬ 
stone)  .  Instead  of  the  con¬ 
cave  stone  a  perfectly  even 
stone  slab  is  employed,  in 
connection  with  a  rubbing- 
stone  with  flat  faces,  by 
New  Mexican  tribes  (Fig.  150,  granite  slab,  sandstone  rubber,  Navajo  Indians). 

Somewhat  partaking  of  the  character  of  mortars  arc  good-sized  stones, 
mostly  solid  slabs,  exhibiting  on  one  of  the  faces,  or  on  both,  rather  irregular 
cup-shaped  depressions,  usually  placed  near  each  other.  It  is  supposed  that 


STONES  BEARING  CUP-SHAPED  DEPRESSIONS  Q) 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


41 


the  natives  used  these  stones  for  cracking  nuts  which  they  laid  in  the  cavities, 
applying  a  stone  for  breaking  them.  There  are  several  of  these  “nut-stones” 
in  the  collection.  Specimens  made  of  potstone  have  been  found  in  districts  of 
Georgia  where  walnut-trees  abound.21  The  Indians,  it  is  well  known,  made  oil 
from  the  fruits  of  these  trees  (Fig.  160,  sandstone,  Pennsylvania).  There  are, 
however,  stones  showing  (on  one  side  only)  artificial  cup-shaped  depressions 
of  such  regularity  and  smoothness  that  another  use  must  be  ascribed  to 
them.  The  specimens  of  the  latter  class  which  have  thus  far  fallen  under 
the  writer’s  notice  were  obtained  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  and  their  material 
was  sandstone.  It  is  not  known  whether  they  were  employed,  as  has  been 
suggested,  in  some  game,  or  served  as  receptacles  in  which  paint  was  rubbed, 
or  for  some  other  purpose  (Fig.  160a,  sandstone,  Kentucky).  Not  a  few  of 
the  stones  with  a  cavity  on  each  side,  and  commonly  classed  with  the  hammer- 
stones  previously  described,  may  have  served  as  nut-stones,  and  others 
evidently  were  paint-mortars.  Some  specimens  of  the  collection  still  bear  the 
traces  of  red  paint  in  their  cavities. 

16.  Pestles. —  These  implements  mostly  form  supplementary  parts  of  mor¬ 
tars,  and  therefore  naturally  follow  immediately  after  them  in  the  present 
enumeration.  The  specimens  in  the  collection  of  the  National  Museum,  which 
can  be  counted  by  the  hundred,  were  chiefly  derived  from  the  Eastern  States, 
from  California  and  the  Northwestern  districts.  In  addition,  many  have  been 
obtained  from  other  parts  of  North  America.  There  is  considerable  difference 
in  their  appearance,  but  the  prevailing  form  seems  to  be  that  of  a  bluntly 
pointed  cone,  swelling  gradually  toward  the  working  portion.  Four-sided 
pestles  are  of  rather  rare  occurrence.  In  length  pestles  vary  from  a  few  inches 
to  two  feet  and  more,  and  their  thickness  differs  accordingly,  though  not 
always  in  proportion,  short  specimens  being  sometimes  thick  and  clumsy, 
while  those  of  considerable  length  are  of  a  relatively  slender  and  tapering 
form.  Many  specimens  of  the  collection  were  found  with  the  remarkable 
stone  vessels  and  mortars  on  the  islands  of  the  Santa  Barbara  group  and  the 
opposite  main-land.  They  are  partly  of  the  simple  conical  shape  to  which 
allusion  was  made  (Fig.  161,  syenite,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  This  elementary 
form  occurs  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States.  Other  specimens  expand  at 
the  upper  end  into  a  kind  of  knob  (Figs.  162  and  163,  compact  sandstone,  Dos 
Pueblos) .  In  a  third  class  an  annular  ridge  surrounds  the  tool  below  the  up¬ 
per  end,  which  tapers  to  a  blunt  point  (Fig.  164,  sandstone,  Dos  Pueblos) .  And 
lastly,  a  variety  has  to  be  mentioned  which  exhibits  a  knob-like  expanse  at  the 
lower  extremity  (Fig.  165,  amygdaloid,  mound  at  Crescent  City,  California). 
In  the  New  England  States  pestles,  more  or  less  resembling  a  cylinder  with 
rounded  ends,  are  quite  frequent,  and  sometimes  of  considerable  length  (Fig. 
166,  fine-grained  sandstone,  Rhode  Island).  Though  the  extremities  of  these 


21  C.  C.  Jones,  “Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,”  New  York,  1873,  p.  315. 

6 


42 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


cylindrical  implements  bear  often  the  unmistakable  marks  of  wear,  it  appears 
probable  that  they  were  sometimes  used  like  rolling-pins  for  crushing  the 
grain.  A  very  fine  specimen  from  Alaska,  measuring  as  much  as  two  feet 


PESTLES  AXD  MULLEIIS. 


five  and  a  half  inches  in  length,  and  consisting  of  compact  greenstone  (Fig. 
167)  exhibits  a  somewhat  similar  character,  but  is  differently  shaped  at  the 
tapering  upper  end.  It  may  be  of  comparatively  recent  manufacture. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


43 


There  are  short  pestles  in  which  the  round  base  is  much  enlarged,  insomuch 
that  the  object  may  be  compared  to  a  cone  with  an  inwardly  curved  side- 
surface.  In  many,  however,  the  working  part  is  not  convex,  but  perfectly  even, 
which  proves  that  they  were  not  used  in  connection  with  mortars,  but  were 
made  to  operate  on  a  flat  surface.  Some  show,  moreover,  a  small  concavity  in 
the  centre  of  the  working  part,  undoubtedly  produced  by  cracking  nuts  or 
other  hard  substances  (Fig.  168,  greenstone,  Pennsylvania;  Fig.  169,  syenite, 
Ohio).  A  very  fine  specimen  from  British  Columbia,  pertaining  to  the  class 
here  described,  is  encircled  by  a  ring-like  projection  below  the  upper  end 
(Fig.  170,  greenstone).  Another  specimen  of  somewhat  recent  aspect,  and 
derived  from  Washington  Territory  (Fig.  171),  is  described  on  the  accompa¬ 
nying  label  as  an  "Indian  hammer  used  to  drive  wooden  or  horn  wedges  to 
split  wood.”  This  implement  consists  of  a  beautiful  silicious  stone  of  a  light- 
green  color,  and  is  worked  with  great  care. 

The  most  curious  and  elaborate  specimens  of  the  pestle  kind  were  brought 
from  Alaska.  These  tools  are  provided  with  horizontal  handles  terminating 
in  round  plates,  slightly  convex  on  the  outside.  The  base  or  working  part  in 
these  implements  is  perfectly  even  and  smooth  (Fig.  172,  greenstone;  appar¬ 
ently  an  old  tool)  .22 

Two  pestles  from  Alaska  are  ornamented  at  the  upper  end  with  rude  carv¬ 
ings,  representing,  respectively,  the  heads  of  a  bird  and  of  a  quadruped,  both 
unrecognizable.  A  fragmentary  pestle  from  Massachusetts  bears  at  its  upper 
extremity  the  well-executed  figure  of  a  raccoon,  and  another  specimen  from 
the  same  State  is  fashioned  in  imitation  of  the  male  organ  of  generation.23 

It  seems  proper  to  mention  in  this  place  more  or  less  carefully  worked  disc¬ 
shaped  stones  of  a  size  to  be  conveniently  grasped  with  the  hand,  which,  to 
judge  from  the  smoothness  of  their  flat  faces,  were  applied  in  triturating  grain 
or  other  substances  (Fig.  173,  greenstone,  Georgia).  In  conclusion,  reference 
should  be  made  to  a  class  of  small  conoid-shaped  mullers,  sometimes  made  of 
hematite,  which  may  have  been  used  for  rubbing  paint  (Fig.  174,  greenstone, 
Ohio) .  Specimens  of  this  description  are  not  very  abundant. 

17,  Tubes, — Among  the  aboriginal  relics  of  somewhat  enigmatical  char¬ 
acter  are  stone  tubes  of  cylindrical  and  other  shapes  and  various  lengths, 
which  sometimes  terminate  at  one  end  in  a  sort  of  mouth-piece.  While  the 
smaller  ones,  which  often  measure  only  a  few  inches,  have  been  thought  to 
represent  articles  of  ornament,  or  amulets,  different  purposes  have  been 
ascribed  to  the  larger  specimens.  Schoolcraft  seems  to  consider  these  latter 


22The  writer  was  informed  by  Mr.  W.  II.  Ball,  that  such  pestles  were  formerly  used  by  the  natives  of 
Alaska  for  mixing  berries,  fish-oil,  fat,  etc.,  in  the  preparation  of  an  article  of  food.  Such  implements  are 
no  longer  made.  A  few  specimens  are  still  in  the  possession  of  the  aborigines,  who  preserve  them  as  heir¬ 
looms.  . 

2i  Several  carved  stone  objects  of  this  class,  not  forming  parts  of  pestles,  are  in  the  collection.  They 
seem  to  indicate  a  love  for  the  obscene  rather  than  anything  like  phallic  worship. 


44 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


as  telescopic  instruments  which  the  ancient  inhabitants  used  for  observing 
the  stars.  This  view,  it  appears,  has  been  generally  rejected.  There  is 
more  probability  that  the  tubes,  in  part  at  least,  were  implements  of  the 
medicine-men  who  employed  them  in  their  pretended  cures  of  diseases.  They 
applied  one  end  of  the  tube  to  the  suffering  part  of  the  patient,  and  sucked 
at  the  other  end,  in  order  to  draw  out,  as  it  were,  the  morbid  matter, 
which  they  afterward  feigned  to  eject  with  many  gesticulations  and  contor¬ 
tions  of  the  body.  Coreal,  who  traveled  in  America  from  16G6  to  1697, 
calls  the  tubes  employed  by  the  medicine-men  of  the  Florida  Indians  ff  a 
kind  of  shepherd’s  flute”  (une  es'pece  de  chalumeau) .24  They  are  referred  to 
by  Venegas25  and  Baegert26  as  being  in  use  among  the  Californians,  and  the 
German  traveler  Ivohl  saw,  as  late  as  1855,  one  of  the  above-mentioned  cures 
performed  among  the  Ojibways  of  Lake  Superior.  In  this  instance,  however, 
the  tube  used  by  the  medicine-man  was  a  smooth  hollow  bone,  probably  of 
the  brant-goose.27 

The  specimens  in  the  Smithsonian  collection  chiefly  consist  of  light-gray 
steatite,  of  striped  slate,  or  of  chlorite.  As  a  typical  object  (Fig.  175,  Ten¬ 
nessee)  the  writer  would  mention  a  beautifully  polished  cylindrical  tube, 


TUBES  (1). 


measuring  nearly  six  inches  in  length.  The  carefully  drilled  perforation  has 
at  one  end  a  diameter  of  about  one-fourth  of  an  inch,  but  it  gradually  expands 
until  it  reaches  at  the  opposite  end  a  diameter  of  three-fourths  of  an  inch. 
The  striae  produced  by  the  drilling  process  are  distinctly  visible.  Another 
specimen  of  a  different  (but  not  uncommon)  type  is  encircled  in  the  middle  by 
a  raised  ring,  and  expands  toward  the  ends  (Fig.  176,  chlorite,  Tennessee). 
The  large  cavity  is  not  drilled,  but  rather  irregularly  scooped  out  with  a  tool 
from  both  sides,  narrowing  considerably  toward  the  middle,  where  it  has  a 
diameter  of  half  an  inch.28  The  Gosh-Utes  of  Western  Utah  use  at  the  pres¬ 
ent  day  small  pipes  of  somewhat  similar  shape,  and  hence  it  is  not  altogether 
improbable,  that  the  tubes  of  the  type  just  mentioned  were  smoking  utensils. 
In  fact,  that  character  has  been  ascribed  to  various  kinds  of  objects  of  tubular 
shape. 


24Coreal:  Voyages  aux  Incles  Occidentales,  Amsterdam,  1722,  Vol.  I,  p.  39. 

*•' Venegas:  History  of  California,  London,  1759,  Vol.  I,  p.  97. 

26Baegcrt:  Account  of  the  Aboriginal  Inhabitants  of  the  Californian  Peninsula,  in  Smithsonian  Iieport 
for  1804,  p.  380. 

27  Kohl :  Kitschi-Gami,  oder  Erzahlungen  vom  Obern  See,  Bremen,  1850,  Vol.  I,  p.  148. 

**A  very  line  specimen  of  this  class,  nearly  fourteen  inches  long,  lately  has  been  deposited  in  the  National 
Museum.  It  was  obtained  near  Knoxville,  Tennessee. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


45 


A  very  remarkable  tube  of  striped  slate,  thirteen  inches  long*,  and  termina¬ 
ting  at  one  end  in  a  broad  mouth-piece,  was  obtained  by  Messrs.  Squier  and 
Davis  in  a  mound  near  Chillicothe,  during  their  survey  of  the  aboriginal 
earthworks  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  This  specimen,  represented  by  a  cast  in 
the  collection  (No.  7243),  is  figured  and  described  on  page  224  of  the  '"An¬ 
cient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  ”  by  Squier  and  Davis,  forming  the 
first  volume  of  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge. 

18.  Pipes.  — No  class  of  aboriginal  productions  of  art  exhibits  a  greater 
diversity  of  form  than  the  pipes  carved  from  stone  or  moulded  in  clay.  In¬ 
deed,  a  volume  would  be  required  for  figuring  and  describing  the  various 
shapes  of  these  utensils,  the  manufacture  of  which  offered  to  the  aboriginal 
artist  an  unlimited  scope  for  displaying  his  individual  skill  and  ingenuity. 
Some  of  the  more  marked  types  only  can  be  noticed  in  this  account.  Stone 
was  the  material  chiefly  used  in  the  manufacture  of  these  smoking  utensils, 
though  pipes  of  clay  are  by  no  means  uncommon.29  In  the  following  enumer¬ 
ation  of  typical  pipes  of  earlier  date  those  of  clay  have  been  included — some¬ 
what  in  violation  of  the  plan  of  arrangement — in  order  to  avoid  the  necessity 
of  treating  them  separately  in  the  section  relating  to  the  ceramic  manufact¬ 
ures  of  the  aborigines. 

Numerous  stone  pipes  of  a  peculiar  type  were  obtained,  many  years  ago,  by 
Messrs.  Squier  and  Davis  during  their  survey  of  the  ancient  earthworks  in 
the  State  of  Ohio.  They  have  been  minutely  described  and  figured  by  them 
in  the  first  volume  of  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge.  The  origi¬ 
nals  of  these  remarkable  smoking  utensils  (presently  to  be  described)  are  now 
in  the  Blackmore  Museum  at  Salisbury,  England;  but  the  National  Museum 
possesses  casts  of  them,  which  enable  visitors  to  become  acquainted  with  their 
character.  These  pipes  were  formerly  thought  to  be  chiefly  made  of  a  kind 
of  porphyry,  a  substance,  which,  by  its  hardness,  would  have  rendered  their 
production  extremely  difficult.  That  view,  however,  was  erroneous;  for  since 
their  transfer  to  the  Blackmore  Museum  they  have  been  carefully  examined 
and  partly  analyzed  by  Professor  A.  H.  Church,  who  found  them  to  consist  of 
softer  materials,  such  as  compact  slate,  argillaceous  ironstone,  ferruginous 
chlorite,  and  calcareous  minerals.30  Nevertheless,  they  constitute  the  most 
remarkable  class  of  aboriginal  products  of  art  thus  far  discovered;  for  some 
of  them  are  so  skillfully  executed  that  a  modern  artist,  notwithstanding  his 
far  superior  metallic  tools,  would  find  no  little  difficulty  in  reproducing  them. 


2»Thc  navigators  who  first  visited  the  Atlantic  Coast  of  North  America  noticed  copper  pipes  among  the 
natives,  as,  for  instance,  Robert  Juet,  who  served  under  Hudson  as  mate  in  the  Half-Moon.  Such  pipes 
must  be  very  rare.  There  arc  none  in  the  Smithsonian  collection. 

311  The  subject  is  fully  treated  in  ‘-Flint  Chips,”  by  E.  T.  Stevens,  London,  1870.  From  this  valuable 
work  the  drawings  of  soiee  of  the  pipes  recovered  by  Messrs.  Squier  and  Davis  are  here  copied,  the  original 
woodcuts  used  in  illustrating  the  “Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley”  having  been  destroyed  by 
the  fire  which  visited  the  Smithsonian  building  in  1805.  Figs.  117  to  184  are  reproductions  of  illustrations 
contained  in  Mr.  Stevens’  work. 


46 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


Four  miles  north  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  there  lies,  elose  to  the  Scioto  Fiver, 
an  embankment  of  earth,  somewhat  in  the  shape  of  a  square  with  strongly 
rounded  angles,  and  enclosing  an  area  of  thirteen  acres,  over  which  twenty- 
three  mounds  are  scattered  without  much  regularity.  This  work  has  been 
called  "Mound  City,”  from  the  great  number  of  mounds  within  its  precinct. 
In  digging  into  the  mounds,  Squier  and  Davis  discovered  hearths  in  many  of 
them,  which  furnished  a  great  number  of  relics,  and  from  one  of  the  hearths 
nearly  two  hundred  stone  pipes  of  singular  form  were  taken,  many  of  which, 
unfortunately,  were  cracked  by  the  action  of  fire,  or  otherwise  damaged.  The 
occurrence  of  such  pipes,  however,  was  not  confined  to  the  mound  in  question, 
others  having  been  found  elsewhere  in  Ohio,  and  likewise  in  mounds  of  Indi¬ 
ana.  In  their  simple  or  primitive  form  they  present  a  round  bowl  rising  from 
the  middle  of  a  flat  and  somewhat  curved  base,  one  side  of  which  communi¬ 
cates  by  means  of  a  narrow  perforation,  usually  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  in 
diameter,  with  the  hollow  of  the  bowl,  and  represents  the  tube  or  rather  the 
mouth-piece  of  the  pipe,  while  the  other  unperforated  end  forms  the  handle 
by  which  the  smoker  held  the  implement  and  approached  it  to  his  mouth.  A 
remarkably  flue  specimen  of  this  kind  (Fig.  177)  was  found  in  a  mound  of  an 
ancient  work  in  Liberty  Township,  Foss  County,  Ohio.  In  the  more  elaborate 
specimens  from  "Mound  City”  the  bowl  is  formed  in  a  few  instances  in  imita¬ 
tion  of  the  human  head,  but  generally  of  the  body  of  some  animal,  and  in  the 
latter  cases  the  peculiarities  of  the  species  which  have  served  as  models  are 
frequently  expressed  with  surprising  fidelity.  The  human  heads,  undoubtedly 
the  most  valuable  specimens  of  the  series,  evidently  bear  features  characteristic 
of  the  Indian  race,  and  they  are  further  remarkable  for  the  head-dress  or 
method  of  arranging  the  hair  (Fig.  178).  A  few  of  the  heads  show  on  the 
face  incised  ornamental  lines,  obviously  intended  to  imitate  the  painting  or 
tattooing  of  the  countenance.  The  following  mammals  have  been  recognized: 
the  beaver  (Fig.  179),  the  otter  (with  a  fish  in  its  mouth,  Fig.  180),  the 
elk,  bear,  wolf,  panther,  wild-cat,  raccoon,  opossum,  squirrel,  and  sea-cow 
(manati,  lamantin,  Trichecus  manatus ,  Lin.).  Of  the  animal  which  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  represent  the  sea-cow,  seven  carvings  have  been  found.  This  inhabi¬ 
tant  of  tropical  waters  is  not  met  in  the  higher  latitudes  of  North  America, 
but  only  on  the  coast  of  Florida,  which  is  many  hundred  miles  distant  from 
Ohio.  The  Florida  Indians  called  this  animal  the  "big  beaver,”  and  hunted  it 
on  account  of  its  flesh  and  bones.31  More  frequent  are  carvings  of  birds, 
among  which  the  eagle,  hawk,  falcon,  turkey-buzzard,  heron  (Fig.  181),  sev¬ 
eral  species  of  owls,  the  raven,  swallow,  parrot,  duck,  and  other  land  and 
water-birds  have  been  recognized.  One  of  the  specimens  is  supposed  to  rep¬ 
resent  the  toucan,  a  tropical  bird  not  inhabiting  the  United  States;  but  the 
figure  is  not  of  sufficient  distinctness  to  identify  the  original  that  was  before 
the  artist’s  mind,  and  it  would  not  be  safe,  therefore,  to  make  this  specimen 


JlBartram:  Travels,  Dublin,  1793,  p.  229. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


47 


the  subject  of  far-reaching  speculations.  The  amphibious  animals,  likewise, 
have  their  representatives  in  the  snake,  toad,  frog,  turtle,  and  alligator.  One 
specimen  shows  a  snake  coiled  around  the  bowl  of  the  pipe.  The  toads,  in 
particular,  are  faithful  imitations  of  nature.  Leaving  aside  the  more  than 
doubtful  toucan,  the  imitated  animals  belong,  without  exception,  to  the  North 
American  fauna,  and  there  is,  moreover,  the  greatest  probability  that  the 


STONE  PirES. 


sculptures  in  question  were  made  in  or  near  the  present  State  of  Ohio,  where, 
in  corroboration  of  this  view,  a  few  unfinished  pipes  of  the  described  character 
have  occurred  among  the  complete  articles. 

Pipes  of  this  type  are  generally  of  rather  small  size,  and  in  many  the  cavity 
of  the  howl  designed  for  holding  the  narcotic  is  remarkable  for  its  insignifi¬ 
cant  capacity.  These  pipes  were  probably  smoked  without  a  stem,  the  nar¬ 
rowness  of  the  perforations  in  their  necks  not  permitting  the  insertion  of 


48 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


anything  thicker  than  a  straw  or  a  very  thin  reed.  Yet  most  of  the  pipes  of 
earlier  date,  occurring  either  in  mounds  or  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  are 
Pr  ovided  with  a  hole  of  suitable  size  for  the  reception  of  a  stem.  A  very 
remarkable  stone  pipe  of  this  character,  obtained  during  the  survey  of  the 
Ohio  earthworks  by  Squier  and  Davis,  was  found  within  an  ancient  enclosure, 
twelve  miles  below  the  city  of  Chillicothe.  It  represents  the  body  of  a  bird 
with  a  human  head  exhibiting  strongly  marked  Indian  features  (Fig.  182). 
The  original,  not  having  been  exposed  to  the  action  of  fire,  is  in  an  excellent 
state  of  preservation,  and  retains  its  original  beautiful  polish. 

The  name  "calumet-pipes”  has  been  given  to  large  stone  pipes  which  were 
smoked  with  a  stem,  and  are  usually  fashioned  in  imitation  of  a  bird,  mammal, 
or  amphibian,  and  sometimes  of  the  human  figure.  They  were  thus  called  on 
account  of  their  bulk,  which  seemed  to  indicate  their  character  as  pipes  of 
ceremony,  to  be  used  on  solemn  occasions.  It  was  further  thought  these  pipes 
had  not  been  the  property  of  individuals,  but  that  of  communities,  a  view 
which  does  not  seem  to  be  altogether  correct,  since  some  have  been  discovered 
in  burial-mounds,  accompanying  a  single  skeleton. 

A  pipe  of  the  kind  just  mentioned  is  made  of  ferruginous  sandstone,  and 
represents  rather  rudely  a  human  figure  with  a  snake  folded  around  its  neck 
(Fig.  183,  cast,  Paint  Creek,  Poss  County,  Ohio).  The  face  is  marked  with 
incised  lines.  Another  large  calumet-pipe,  carved  in  imitation  of  a  quadruped 
of  the  canine  family  (probably  a  wolf),  consists  of  chlorite,  and  was  found  in 
Poss  County,  Ohio  (Fig.  184,  cast).  The  National  Museum  possesses  one  of 

the  finest  calumet-pipes  thus 
fiir  discovered  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  boldly  cut  out  of 
potstone,  and  represents  a  bird 
with  a  strongly  curved  beak, 
perhaps  an  eagle,  which  stands 
on  a  high  pedestal,  showing 
in  front  an  inverted  human 
face  bearing  incised  lines.  The 
bowl  rises  from  the  back  of  the 
bird.  This  remarkable  aborig¬ 
inal  carving  (Fig.  185),  which 
partakes  somewhat  of  a  "Pro¬ 
methean”  character,  and  may 
have  reference  to  an  event  or 
to  some  religious  conception, 
was  found  in  the  State  of 
STONE  riPE‘  Kentucky. 

There  are  many  small  pipes  which,  though  they  were  smoked  with  stems, 
are  not  provided  with  projections  or  necks  for  their  insertion,  thus  resembling 
one  of  the  calumet-pipes  just  noticed  (Fig.  183).  The  holes  designed  to  hold 


SMITHSONIAN  AHCIIiEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


49 


them  are  drilled  immediately  into  the  body  of  the  howl.  Pipes  of  this  de¬ 
scription  assume  innumerable  forms.  Some  are  produced  without  much  art, 
almost  reminding  one  of  the  corn-cob  pipes  in  use  among  the  farmers  of 
this  country  (Fig.  186,  compact  argillaceous  stone,  Pennsylvania) ;  others 
are  fashioned  with  great  care,  and  may  be  counted  among  the  better  class  of 
Indian  products  of  art.  As  an  example  the  writer  would  mention  a  highly 
polished  serpentine  pipe  from  West  Virginia,  which  might  at  first  sight  easily 


STONE  AND  CLAY  PIPES  (J). 


be  mistaken  for  the  imitation  of  a  swan,  though  it  has  been  ascertained  by 
competent  ornithologists  that  the  bird  was  intended  for  the  loon  (Fig.  18T). 
Generally  speaking,  birds  were  rather  frequently  the  models  copied  by  the 
manufacturers  of  the  pipes  under  notice,  and  an  upright  bird  figure,  with  the 
receptacle  of  the  narcotic  hollowed  out  downward  between  the  wings  and  an 
aperture  for  the  stem  at  some  distance  from  the  end  of  the  tail,  may  he  con¬ 
sidered  as  a  typical  form.  A  specimen  of  this  description  (Fig.  188),  made 

7 


50 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


of  a  compact  argillaceous  stone  and  representing  a  parrot,  was  derived  from 
the  State  of  New  "York.  In  another  class  of  pipes,  somewhat  analogous  to 
the  preceding  type,  the  barrel-shaped  bowl  rises  from  a  sort  of  handle  pierced 
with  a  hole  for  the  stem  (Fig.  189,  argillaceous  stone,  Ohio).  Pipes  of  this 
character  may  not  be  very  old.32 

Passing  over  to  the  pipes  provided  with  necks,  a  typical  class  deserves 
mention,  in  which  the  almost  cylindrical  very  high  bowl  stands  upon  a  flat 
perforated  base  prolonged  beyond  the  bowl,  to  form  a  sort  of  handle.  In 
some  the  perforation  of  the  neck  is  very  narrow,  and  these  were  probably 
smoked  without  stems,  like  the  pipes  obtained  from  mounds  in  Ohio,  to  which 
they  bear  some  analogy  (Fig.  190,  Y  irginia).  The  specimens  of  this  descrip¬ 
tion  seen  by  the  writer  were  made  of  chlorite. 


In  the  districts  formerly  inhabited  by  the  Iroquois  tribes,  and  in  the  neigh- 
boiing  parts,  there  have  been  found  pipes  of  stone  and  clay  in  which  the  con¬ 
nection  of  the  bowl  with  the  neck  forms  a  curve  (Fig.  191,  serpentine.  New 
^  ork).  Some  of  these  pipes,  more  especially  specimens  of  burned  clay,  ex¬ 
hibit  elegant  outlines,  almost  reminding  one  of  a  cornucopia.  The  length  of 
the  neck  in  some  of  the  specimens  and  their  narrow  bore  seem  to  indicate 
that  they  were  smoked  without  separate  stems,  like  the  common  clay  pipes 
now  in  use,  in  which  bowl  and  stem  are  united.  A  very  beautiful,  highly 
polished  steatite  pipe  of  the  collection  is  carved  in  imitation  of  a  lizard  (Fig. 
192,  Pennsylvania).  The  straight  neck  or  stem  apparently  forms  the  animal’s 
tail,  and  its  toes  are  indicated  by  incised  lines. 

Many  of  the  pipes  formerly  used  by  the  aborigines,  and  made  either  of  stone 
or  clay,  approach  in  general  character  certain  pipes  common  among  civilized 
races,  being  furnished  with  distinct  necks  by  which  they  were  attached  to 
stems.  Such  pipes  are  often  of  large  dimensions,  and  their  bowls  provided 
with  wide  cavities  for  holding  a  considerable  quantity  of  the  smoking  material. 
These  large  specimens,  or  calumets,  nearly  always  consist  of  stone,  and  their 
bowls  and  necks  are  round  or  four-sided  in  the  cross  section  (Fig.  193,  pot- 
stone,  North  Carolina).  Incised  lines,  raised  rims  and  other  ornaments,  char¬ 
acterize  the  more  elaborate  specimens  of  this  kind.  A  beautiful  serpentine 
pipe  of  smaller  size,  and,  perhaps,  not  very  old,  shows  a  quadrilateral  rim  with 
a  human  head  carved  at  each  corner  (Fig.  194,  Texas).  Several  small  stone 
pipes  of  the  collection  are  remarkable  for  their  low  broad-rimmed  bowls  and 
the  prolongation  of  the  necks  beyond  the  bowls.  One  of  the  specimens  of 
this  character,  which  consists  of  compact  limestone,  is  evidently  very  old, 
being  entirely  covered  with  a  white  crust  produced  by  decay  (Fi«\  195* 
mound  in  Kentucky).33 

Clay  pipes  of  kindred  character,  moulded  into  almost  every  conceivable 
shape,  frequently  occur  in  aboriginal  graves  as  well  as  on  the  surface.  The 


32  The  type  occurs  among  the  pipes  carved  by  modern  Indians. 

33  The  pipes  made  of  red  pipestone  or  Catlinite,  which  are  represented  by 
collection,  belong  to  more  recent  times. 


numerous 


specimens  in  the 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


51 


bowl  often  represents  a  more  or  less  carefully  executed  human  head.  Some 
bear  some  resemblance  to  the  chiboud  of  the  Turks  (Fig.  196,  Georgia) . 

Stone  pipes  of  an  altogether  different  character  were  in  vogue  among 
certain  Californian  tribes.  They  are  of  an  elongated  conoidal  shape,  of  large 
size  and  corresponding  capacity  (Fig.  19T,  serpentine,  Santa  Barbara  County) . 
Some  have  been  found  with  a  short  hollow  bone  cemented  as  a  mouth-piece 
into  the  aperture  at  the  tapering  end.84  Similar  pipes  of  smaller  size  are  still 
used  by  the  Pai-Utes. 

Lastly,  special  mention  should  be  made  of  two  fragmentary  pipes  of  clay, 
both  found  in  Madison  County,  New  York,  and  remarkable  for  excellent 
workmanship.  In  one  the  bowl  is  formed  by  the  coils  of  a  skillfully  executed 
snake  (Fig.  198);  in  the  other  by  the  head  of  a  bird  (apparently  a  raven) 
with  widely  opened  bill  (Fig.  199).  The  outside  of  these  specimens  is  coated 
with  a  yellowish  brown  paint,  and  perfectly  smooth. 

19.  Ornaments.  —  Though  the  aborigines  of  North  America  (north  of 
Mexico)  chiefly  employed  shell-matter  as  the  material  of  their  ornaments, 
they  likewise  made  use  of  stone  for  that  purpose.  First  ought  to  be  mentioned 
their  stone  beads  of  various  forms  and  sizes,  which  they  strung  and  wore  as 
personal  decorations,  mostly,  perhaps,  in  the  shape  of  necklaces.  Some  beads 
are  globular  or  compressed  at  the  opposite  ends  (Fig.  200,  serpentine,  Santa 
Barbara  County,  California)  ;  others  are  of  irregular  shape,  four-sided,  notched 
at  the  circumference,  etc.  (Figs.  201  and  202,  potstone,  Pennsylvania) .  The 
collection  contains  a  number  of  articles  of  ornamental  character,  presenting 
the  shape  of  straight  tubes,  either  cylindrical  or  somewhat  swelling  toward  the 
middle.  A  well-drilled  specimen  consisting  of  silicious  material  (Fig.  203, 
Mississippi)  measures  nearly  three  inches  in  length.  There  are  further  in  the 
collection  several  ornaments  made  of  the  red  pipestone,  or  Catlinite,  from  the 
Coteau  des  Prairies  in  Minnesota.  Though  probably  no  great  antiquity  can 
be  ascribed  to  them,  they  ought  to  be  mentioned  here,  having  been  discovered 
in  digging  the  Oriskany  Canal  in  the  State  of  New  York.  They  may  be 
attributable  to  the  Iroquois.  A  typical  form  of  these  ornaments,  which  the 
writer  had  occasion  also  to  notice  outside  of  the  National  Museum,  may  be 
likened  to  a  compressed  slender  pyramid,  pierced  in  the  longitudinal  direction 
(Fig.  204).  The  occurrence  of  these  objects  of  Catlinite  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  distant  twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  miles  from  the  red  pipestone  quarry, 
furnishes  a  strong  evidence  of  a  far-extended  aboriginal  trade. 

Next  must  be  mentioned  objects  of  stone  pierced  for  suspension,  which 
were  undoubtedly  worn  as  breast  ornaments,  representing  in  many  cases,  it 
may  be  assumed,  badges  of  distinction.  A  very  fine  specimen  of  the  col¬ 
lection,  someAvhat  resembling  in  outline  a  certain  class  of  pierced  tablets, 


34  Among  the  objects  recovered  by  Mr.  Paul  Schumacher,  during  his  explorations  in  Southern  California, 
are  many  pipes  of  this  description. 


52 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  TOLISIIED  STONE 


is  ornamented  with  a  border  of  dotted  triangles  (Fig.  205,  trap  rock,  Con¬ 
necticut).  Another  smaller  specimen  of  kindred  character,  which  is  made 
of  a  flat  sandstone  pebble  of  oval  outline,  bears  incised  ornamental  lines 
(Fig.  206,  Rhode  Island).  Small  oval  or  round  pebbles  of  a  compressed 
form,  pierced  with  a  hole  for  suspension,  but  otherwise  left  in  their  natural 


205  201 


ORNAMENTS,  ETC. 


state,  are  not  uncommon  (Fig.  20/,  Pennsylvania).  A  very  remarkable 
small  object,  designed  for  suspension,  consists  of  a  shell  of  brown  hematite 
of  rather  irregular  outline,  and  shows  no  other  modifications  by  art  than 
a  perforation  at  one  extremity,  and  nine  distinct  incisions  or  notches  at 
the  other  (Fig.  208,  Virginia).  These  notches  may  have  a  significance, 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


denoting,  perhaps,  the  number  of  animals  of  a  certain  species,  or  of  ene¬ 
mies,  killed  by  the  wearer.  Possibly  the  notches  may  form  the  enumer¬ 
ation  of  transactions  of  a  more  peaceable  character.  Similar  "records”  have 
been  noticed  among  the  prehistoric  relics  of  Europe.  Several  objects  in 
the  collection,  undoubtedly  ornamental  in  their  character,  are  shaped  like  a 
heart,  which  was  among  the  North  American  Indians,  as  well  as  with  other 
nations,  the  emblem  of  courage  and  of  other  manly  qualities.  One  of  the 
specimens  (Fig.  209,  argillaceous  slate)  is  derived  from  an  Ohio  mound,  where 
it  was  lying  near  the  neck  of  the  skeleton. 

The  Smithsonian  collection  possesses  a  series  of  the  well-known  curious 
relics  intended  to  represent  birds,  the  body,  neck,  head,  and  tail  being  clearly, 
though  clumsily,  indicated.  The  place  of  the  eyes  is  occasionally  marked  by 
small  bead-like  elevations,  sometimes,  however,  by  unproportionally  large 
knob-shaped  projections.  These  figures  stand  on  flat  bases  pierced  at  their 
extremities  with  diagonal  holes  which  often  exhibit  traces  of  wear.  The 
objects  are  generally  made  of  soft  stone,  such  as  the  often-mentioned  green 
striped  slate;  yet  porphyritic  syenite  and  other  hard  substances  sometimes 
form  their  materials.  A  characteristic  specimen  of  the  collection  (Fig.  210, 
Pennsylvania)  consists  of  striped  slate.  In  this  instance  the  eyes  are  indi¬ 
cated  by  small  round  protuberances.  The  object  is  marked  along  the  neck, 
head,  back,  and  tail  with  numerous  notches,  probably  designed  for  ornament. 
It  is  evident  that  these  relics  were  worn  in  some  way  (perhaps  as  amulets), 
and  not  used  as  knife-handles  or  for  removing  the  husk  of  Indian  corn,  as  has 
been  suggested.  The  latest  theory,  based  upon  information  received  from 
an  "aged  Indian”  is,  that  they  were  worn  in  olden  times  on  the  heads  of 
Indian  women,  but  only  after  marriage.  One  specimen  of  the  collection,  how¬ 
ever,  made  of  striped  slate,  and  finished  in  every  respect,  though  left  without 
the  diagonal  holes,  weighs  two  pounds  and  one  ounce.  It  is  incredible  that  a 
woman  should  have  worn  such  a  heavy  object  on  her  head  for  the  sake  of 
indicating  her  married  state.  Some  very  fine  specimens  in  the  National 
Museum,  evidently  belonging  to  the  class  under  notice,  are  not  imitations  of 
the  bird  form,  but  are  shaped  alike  at  both  perforated  extremities  (Fig.  211, 
striped  slate,  mound  in  Ohio) . 

The  objects  hitherto  treated  may  be  denominated  ornaments  with  some 
degree  of  safety ;  but  we  include  here,  for  want  of  a  better  designation,  a  few 
other  classes  of  typical  articles  which  possibly  were  intended  for  purposes  of 
a  useful  rather  than  a  decorative  character.  Among  them  are  small  carefully 
worked  objects  shaped  like  cylinders  with  inwardly  curved  side-surfaces. 
These  objects  are  perforated  lengthwise,  or  show  at  least  the  beginnings  of 
perforations  at  both  ends,  and  bear  on  their  side-surfaces  incised  ornamental 
lines.  The  round  (sometimes  oval)  flat  extremities  are  likewise  ornamented 
with  engraved  lines  and  dots,  differing  in  their  pattern  from  the  decorations 
on  the  curved  sides  (Fig.  212,  fine-grained  argillaceous  sandstone,  Kentucky) . 
The  mode  of  their  application  has  not  been  ascertained.  It  has  been  sug- 


54 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


gested,  on  account  of  their  concave  side-surfaces,  that  they  were  tools  em¬ 
ployed  in  pressing  ornamental  lines  on  clay  vessels  while  yet  in  a  soft  state. 
Upon  trial,  however,  it  has  been  found  that  the  impressions  produced  by  them 
on  wet  clay  bear  little  analogy  to  the  ornamentation  which  characterizes 
North  American  vessels,  and  hence  their  real  purpose  remains  problematical 
for  the  present. 

Among  the  relics  of  the  former  population  are  rings  of  stone  and  bone  of 
different  sizes,  but  similar  in  shape,  being  deeply  grooved  upon  the  outer  edge, 
and  pierced  with  eight  equidistant  small  holes  radiating  from  the  centre.  A 
cast  in  the  collection  (Fig.  213)  is  the  fac-simile  of  such  a  ring,  which  was 
discovered  in  a  mound  not  far  from  Chillicothe,  Ohio.  The  cast,  however, 
represents  the  object  as  perfect,  whereas  the  original,  formerly  belonging  to 
Dr.  E.  II.  Davis,  constitutes  only  one-half  of  the  ring,  which  consists  of  a 
dark  stone  of  medium  hardness.  In  a  former  publication35  the  writer  has 
suggested  that  these  rings  once  formed  parts  of  bow-drills  by  means  of  which 
the  aborigines  produced  the  perforations  in  pipes  and  other  objects  of  stone. 
A  well-made  potstone  ring  of  the  collection  (Fig.  214,  Pennsylvania)  is 
grooved  around  the  circumference,  but  not  pierced  with  lateral  holes.  The 
writer’s  view  concerning  the  mode  of  application  of  these  rings  has  been 
somewhat  shaken  by  the  fact  that  there  is  in  the  Smithsonian  collection  a 
similarly  shaped  ornamented  ring  of  burned  clay,  which,  owing  to  the  fragility 
of  its  material,  hardly  could  have  been  utilized  in  the  indicated  manner.  Yet 
this  clay  ring,  though  resembling  the  described  objects  of  stone,  may  have 
been  designed  for  a  totally  different  purpose. 

20.  Sculptures.  —  Though  many  of  the  objects  treated  in  the  preceding 
portion  of  this  account  may  be  called  sculptures  in  view  of  the  mode  of 
their  production,  as  for  instance,  stone  pipes  and  other  elaborately  wrought 
articles  of  the  same  material,  the  expression  is  here  reserved  for  a  special  class 
of  aboriginal  relics,  among  which  imitations  of  the  human  body,  or  parts  of  it, 
are  the  most  conspicuous. 

There  are  in  the  collection  numerous  casts  of  Mexican  stone  masks  and 
images,  some  of  which  probably  have  reference  to  the  idol-worship  of  the 
Aztecs.  The  so-called  masks  are  not  uncommon  in  the  United  States,  and 
casts  of  several  of  them  may  be  seen  in  the  collection,  which  also  contains  an 
original  of  this  class  from  Rhode  Island,  representing  a  human  face  very 
rudely  carved  in  sandstone.  The  eyes  are  represented  by  oval  depressions, 
and  a  simple  groove  constitutes  the  mouth,  while  the  nose  is  indicated  by 
an  insignificant  elevation.  The  back  part  shows  a  rough  fracture,  a  circum¬ 
stance  which  renders  it  probable  at  least  that  the  specimen  is  the  detached 
facial  portion  of  a  very  roughly  worked  imitation  of  the  human  head. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  objects  in  the  National  Museum  (Fig.  215)  is  a 


36 u Drilling  in  Stone  without  Metal;”  Smithsonian  Report  for  180S. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION 


55 


stone  image,  more  than  twenty  inches  in  length  and  weighing  thirty-seven 
pounds  and  four  ounces,  which  was  discovered  in  a  cave  near  Strawberry 
Plains,  sixteen  miles  east  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee.36  This  remarkable  relic, 
which  is  in  a  very  good  state  of  preservation,  consists  of  crystalline  limestone, 
the  fracture  of  which  can  be  seen  at  the  back  of  the  head,  where  the  figure 
seems  to  have  been  detached  from  the  rock  out  of  which  it  was  sculptured. 


SCULPTURES. 


It  is  possible,  however,  that  the  fracture  indicates  the  former  presence  of  some 
sort  of  handle  or  projection  by  which  the  image  was  carried  or  attached.  The 
face  shows  a  somewhat  prominent  nose  and  strongly  marked  brows,  and  the 
eyes  consist  of  small  oval  cavities,  while  the  mouth  is  ring-shaped,  as  in  many 
Mexican  rejiresentations  of  the  human  countenance.  A  groove  extends  across 


36  An  account  of  the  discovery  of  this  image  is  given  in  the  Smithsonian  Report  for  1870,  p.  385 


5G 


rECKED,  GROUND  AND  TOLISIIED  STONE. 


the  face  between  the  nose  and  the  mouth.  The  ears  are  unproportionally 
large.  There  is  no  body,  properly  speaking,  but  merely  a  kind  of  four-sided 
pedestal  with  a  flat  base  on  which  the  figure  can  stand.  Its  front  side  shows  an 
appendage  in  the  form  of  a  small  apron,  which  may,  however,  be  intended  to 
maik  the  male  sex.  Lastly,  there  are  to  be  seen  on  both  sides  of  the  figure 
cavities,  perhaps  cut  out  in  lieu  of  arms.  The  stone  image  just  described  is 
undoubtedly  among  the  best  of  its  kind  thus  far  discovered  within  the  United 
States,  and  compares  favorably  with  kindred  sculptures  of  Mexican  or  Central 
American  origin. 

The  sculpture  of  a  human  head,  cut  almost  in  life  size  from  a  kind  of  lime¬ 
stone,  is  of  interest,  irrespectively  of  its  intrinsic  value,  on  account  of  having 
been  in  the  possession  of  President  Thomas  Jefferson,  while  he  lived  at 
Monticello  (Fig.  21G).  Although  much  mutilated,  this  relic  is  still  sufficiently 
preserved  to  show  the  very  creditable  original  workmanship.  There  is  no 
exaggeration  or  deformity  in  any  part  of  this  head,  which  may  be  the  likeness 
of  some  aged  person  with  a  deeply  wrinkled  face.  A  conical  cavity  in  the 
base  of  the  head  evidently  served  for  keeping  it  in  position  by  some  sort  of 
support.  There  is  another  cavity  in  the  back  part  of  the  head.  The  records 

of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  contain  no  information  as  to  the  place  where  it 
was  found. 

A  curious  little  relic,  made  of  a  dark  ferruginous  stone,  deserves  notice  on 
account  of  its  grotesque  character  (Fig.  217,  Ohio).  The  stone  seems  to  be 
a  natural  formation,  only  modified  by  the  carving  of  round  eyes,  a  nose,  and  a 
wide  open  mouth. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Mexicans  were  far  more  advanced  in  the  art  of 
stone  sculpture  than  the  Indian  tribes  inhabiting  higher  latitudes  of  North 
America.  I  here  are  in  the  collection  some  remarkable  specimens  of  Mexican 
stone  sculpt  me,  among  them  a  massive  slab  worked  in  the  shape  of  a  human 
head  surmounted  by  an  elaborate  head-dress  (Fig.  218) .  This  relic,  obtained 
fi  om  Tuspan,  consists  of  some  kind  of  volcanic  rock,  and  may  have  belonged 
to  a  large  figure.  The  head  measures  fifteen  inches  in  length  and  is  thirteen 
inches  and  a  half  broad.  Small  Mexican  carvings  in  stone  are  not  wanting 
in  the  National  Museum ;  but  as  a  description  of  all  these  specimens  would 
occupy  too  much  space,  only  a  few  will  be  noticed.  There  is,  for  instance,  a 
flat  carving  of  the  human  figure,  in  which  the  head  alone,  including  a  peculiar 
head-dress,  is  carefully,  though  not  artistically,  executed  in  its  details,  while 
the  body  merely  forms  a  sort  of  appendage  (Fig.  219).  This  relic  consists  of 
a  greenish-gray  stone,  but  not  of  the  much-valued  chalcldhuitl .  Another 
small  specimen,  measuring  about  an  inch  and  a  half  in  height,  and  carved 
Irom  white  alabaster,  represents  a  human  figure  with  a  remarkable  counte¬ 
nance  and  an  unproportionally  small  body  in  the  squatting  posture  character¬ 
istic  of  Mexican  images  (Fig.  220)..  The  neck  is  pierced  for  suspension. 
Lastly,  we  would  mention  a  carving  in  the  shape  of  a  death’s  head,  not  larger 
than  a  walnut,  which  was  found  among  the  ruins  of  Chichen  Itza,  in  Yucatan. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


57 


The  flat  back  of  this  diminutive  representation  of  a  skull  is  perforated  at  each 
side  with  a  diagonal  hole.  The  material  appears  to  he  silicified  wood.0' 

A  very  curious  class  of  Indian  sculptures  are  the  imitations  of  human  foot¬ 
prints  which  occur,  cut  on  solid  rocks  and  sometimes  on  boulders,  in  various 
parts  of  North  America.  These  artificial  tracks  have  elicited  much  unprofita¬ 
ble  speculation,  being  considered  by  some  as  real  impressions  of  human  feet, 
and  consequently  dating  from  a  time  when  the  rocks  were  still  in  a  state  of 
softness.  Though  this  view  is  now  entirely  abandoned  by  intelligent  observ¬ 
ers,  there  are  some  persons  who,  being  unacquainted  with  the  results  of 
geology,  still  adhere  to  it.  The  foot-prints  ot  man  which  are  found,  either 
isolated  or  in  connection  with  other  designs,  on  many  rocks  in  the  United 
States  belong  to  the  pictographical  system  of  the  aborigines,  and  probably 
relate  to  incidents  worthy  of  their  remembrance.  Among  the  remarkable  ob¬ 
jects  of  the  collection  are  three  large  stone  slabs  bearing  impressions  of  human 


SCULPTURED  FOOT-TRACKS  (£). 


feet.  On  two  of  these  slabs,  which  have  been  carefully  cut  out  of  the  rocks, 
may  be  seen,  respectively,  two  impressions  of  feet  represented  as  being  covered 
with  moccasins  of  a  pattern  still  in  use  among  the  Sioux  and  other  western 
tribes  (Fig.  222).  These  slabs  consist  of  sandstone,  probably  pertaining  to  the 
carboniferous  formation,  and  were  obtained  from  the  banks  of  the  Missouri 
Kiver.  The  third  specimen  of  this  description  (Fig.  223)  is  a  flattish  block 
of  quartzite  (probably  a  boulder),  which  bears  on  one  of  its  flat  sides  the  im¬ 
pression  of  a  naked  foot,  each  toe  being  distinctly  marked  by  a  cavity  of 
proportionate  depth.  The  foot  is  surrounded  by  a  number  of  cup-shaped 
depressions.  This  relic  was  obtained  in  Gasconade  County,  IMissouii. 


8 


37This  relic  is  described  in  the  Smithsonian  Report  for  1871,  p.  423. 


58 


PECKED,  GROUND  AND  POLISHED  STONE. 


Though  perhaps  not  exactly  in  the  right  place,  we  would  here  mention  a 
specimen  of  the  collection,  which  was  evidently  employed  in  the  manufacture 
of  moccasins,  being,  in  fact,  a  stone  brought  to  the  shape  of  a  last,  such  as 
shoemakers  use.  This  specimen,  consisting  of  greenstone,  was  obtained  in 
Arizona;  but  similar  stone  lasts  also  occur  in  the  eastern  parts  of  the  United 
States.  There  is  one  in  the  collection  of  the  Antiquarian  Society  at  Wor¬ 
cester,  Massachusetts,  and  the  writer  has  seen  specimens  of  the  same  char¬ 
acter  in  Missouri  and  New  Jersey. 


II.  COPPER. 


It  is  well  known  that  the  North  American  Indians,  at  least  those  inhabiting 
the  districts  north  of  Mexico,  lived  in  an  age  of  stone  at  the  time  when  their 
country  became  first  known  to  the  whites.  They  made,  however,  some  use  of 
native  copper  which  they  chiefly  obtained  from  the  region  where  Lake  Super¬ 
ior  borders  on  the  northern  part  of  Michigan.  The  traces  of  ancient  aborigi¬ 
nal  mining  in  that  district  were  first  noticed  in  18-L,  and  since  that  time  the 
subject  has  been  fully  treated  in  various  publications,  more  especially  in  a 
memoir  by  Mr.  Charles  AVhittlesey,  forming  one  of  the  Smithsonian  Conti  i- 
butions  to  Knowledge.1  Native  copper  from  other  parts  of  the  United 
States  likewise  may  have  been  utilized  to  some  extent  by  the  aborigines.2 
Copper  implements,  such  as  axes  or  celts,  chisels,  gravers,  knives  and  points 
of  arrows  and  spears,  together  with  ornaments  of  various  kinds,  have  been 
found  in  mounds  and  on  the  surface  in  different  parts  of  this  country,  though 
not  in  great  abundance,  and  it  does  not  seem,  therefore,  that  copper  played  an 
important  part  in  the  industrial  advancement  of  the  race.  1  he  aboi igines 
lacked,  as  far  as  investigations  hitherto  have  shown,  the  knowledge  of  render¬ 
ing  copper  serviceable  to  their  purposes  by  the  process  of  melting,  contenting 
themselves  by  hammering  masses  of  the  native  metal  with  great  labor  into 
the  shapes  of  implements  or  of  objects  of  decoration.  In  short,  they  treated 
copper  as  malleable  stone.  Copper  articles  of  aboriginal  01  igin  genei  ally 
exhibit  a  distinct  laminar  structure,  though  quite  a  considerable  degree  of 
density  has  been  imparted  to  the  metal  by  continued  hammering.  .  It  must  be 
admitted,  furthermore,  that  the  natives  had  acquired  great  skill  in  working 
the  copper  in  a  cold  state.3  The  first  voyagers  who  visited  North  America 
(Yerazzano,  the  Knight  of  Elvas,  Captain  John  Smith,  Robert  Juet,  and 
others)  saw  copper  ornaments  and  other  objects  made  of  this  metal  in  the 
possession  of  the  Indians,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  manufacture 


1  “  Ancient  Mining  on  the  Shores  of  Lake  Superior,”  Washington,  1863. 

2  It  is  sometimes  met,  in  pieces  of  several  pounds’  weight,  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  River,  and  also 
in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  probably  originating  in  both  cases  from  the  red  sandstone  formation.  Near 

New  Haven,  Connecticut,  a  mass  was  found  weighing  ninety  pounds. 

3Mr.  J.  W.  Foster  describes  and  figures  in  his  “Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United  States,’  North  American 
copper  implements,  which,  as  he  thinks,  were  produced  by  casting.  The  subject  will  require  further  in¬ 
vestigation. 


(59) 


GO 


CORPER  IMPLEMENTS  AND  ORNAMENTS. 


of  such  articles  was  still  going  on  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  North 
American  continent.4 

The  objects  of  copper  found  in  the  United  States,  as  mentioned,  embrace 
implements  and  weapons  as  well  as  ornaments,  all  of  which  are  represented  in 
the  collection  by  originals  and  a  number  of  copper  casts.  First  should  be 
noticed  the  celt-shaped  objects,  which  bear  a  great  resemblance  to  correspond¬ 
ing  bronze  implements  in  European  collections.  There  is,  for  instance,  a 
well-shaped  celt  derived  from  a  mound  near  Lexington,  Kentucky,  which 
has  been  exposed  to  the  action  of  tire,  as  seen  by  pieces  of  charcoal  and  cin¬ 
ders  still  adhering  to  it  (Fig.  224).  The  implement  and  the  cinders  are 
covered  with  green  rust.  From  the  same  mound  were  taken  some  axe- 
shaped,  though  perfectly  blunt  objects,  terminating  at  the  broader  end  in 
lateral  curved  appendages  (Fig.  225).  Their  significance  has  not  yet  been 
ascertained.  Among  the  copper  celts  of  the  collection  are  several  smaller 
specimens  of  good  workmanship,  one  of  them  (Fig.  226)  taken  from  a  mound 
near  Savannah,  Tennessee.  The  most  beautiful  article  of  a  wedge-like  char¬ 
acter  is  a  kind  of  chisel  with  an  expanding,  strongly  curved  edge,  which 
shows  a  slight  concavity,  imparting  to  the  implement  almost  the  character 
of  a  gouge  (Fig.  227,  back  view,  New  York).  The  upper  surface  is  nearly 
even,  but  the  back  part  presents,  as  it  were,  two  faces,  which  join  in  the  mid¬ 
dle,  forming  a  longitudinal  ridge. 

There  are  further  to  be  mentioned  weapons  of  the  arrow  and  spear-head 
form,  of  elongated  shape,  and  terminating  opposite  the  points  in  stems,  either 
truncated  or  pointed  (Fig.  228,  Lake  Superior  district;  Fig.  229,  Yermont). 
A  well-made  crescent-shaped  implement  with  a  tolerably  sharp  convex  edge 
may  be  considered  as  a  knife  (Fig.  230,  Fond  du  Lac,  'Wisconsin).  If  it  had 
been  a  gorget,  as  has  been  suggested,  it  probably  would  show  the  usual  holes 
for  suspension.  One  of  the  most  interesting  copper  tools  of  the  collection, 
perhaps  a  unique  relic,  is  a  slender  awl  still  inserted  in  its  bone  handle  (Fig. 
231).  This  specimen,  which  was  found  on  Khea’s  Island,  Loudon  County, 
Tennessee,  reminds  one  of  corresponding  iron  tools  in  use  at  the  present  day. 
A  copper  sinker  from  Ohio  (Fig.  232),  analogous  in  shape  to  a  certain  class  of 
stone  objects  previously  described,  deserves  particular  notice. 

Passing  over  to  the  copper  ornaments  of  the  collection,  we  will  first  mention 


4  Traces  of  wrought  silver  have  been  discovered  among  the  aboriginal  relics,  but  they  are  so  exceedingly 
scanty  that  the  technical  significance  of  this  metal  hardly  can  be  taken  into  consideration.  Native  silver, 
it  is  well  known,  occurs  interspersed  in  small  masses  in  the  copper  of  the  Lake  Superior  district,  and  from 
that  source  the  Indians  doubtless  derived  the  small  amount  of  silver  used  by  them.  Gold  was  seen  by  the 
earliest  travelers  in  small  quantities  (in  grains)  among  the  Florida  Indians;  yet,  to  the  writer’s  knowledge, 
no  object  made  of  gold,  that  can  with  certainty  be  attributed  to  the  aborigines  (north  of  Mexico),  has  thus 
far  been  discovered.  Squier  and  Davis  found  no  gold  during  their  extensive  explorations  in  Ohio.  The 
discovery  of  small  aboriginal  relics  of  gold,  however,  would  not  be  surprising,  considering  that  this  precious 
metal  occurs  in  some  of  the  districts  of  the  United  States  formerly  occupied  by  the  Indian  race. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  natives  understood  the  melting  of  lead;  but  pieces  of  galena  frequently  occur 
in  mounds,  and  there  is  in  the  Museum  a  bead  (resembling  the  original  of  fig.  200)  skillfully  made  of  that 
ore. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


Cl 


armlets  and  bracelets,  consisting  of  hammered  rods  about  the  thickness  of  a 
lead-pencil,  and  bent  into  a  circular  or  oval  form  until  their  ends  meet.  These 
specimens  were  obtained  from  mounds  in  Indiana  and  West  Virginia.  Similar 


COPPER  IMPLEMENTS  AND  ORNAMENTS  Q-). 

bronze  ornaments  are  met  in  collections  of  European  antiquities.  Copper 
beads  are  well  represented  in  the  collection.  They  consist  of  coarse  wire 
or  small  pieces  of  copper  closely  wound  and  hammered  together  (Fig.  233, 
mound  in  Ohio),  or,  more  generally,  of  strips  of  copper  sheet  bent  into  the 


G2 


COrPER  IMPLEMENTS  AND  ORNAMENTS. 


form  of  cylinders  with  overlapping,  though  never  soldered,  edges.  These 
cylindrical  beads  are  sometimes  so  long  that  they  may  be  called  tubes,  as, 
for  instance,  a  number  of  specimens  more  than  three  inches  long,  which 
were  discovered  in  an  Indian  grave  near  Newport,  Rhode  Island  (Fig. 
234).  These  tubular  ornaments,  however,  though  covered  with  verdigris, 
cannot  be  very  old,  considering  that  each  of  them  encloses  a  tightly  fitting 
piece  of  reed  of  equal  length,  evidently  stuck  into  the  cylinders  for  diminish¬ 
ing  the  width  of  the  holes,  and  even  remnants  of  the  narrow  thong  by  which 
they  were  connected  or  attached  have  been  preserved.  It  is  probable  that  the 
tubes  are  of  Indian  (not  European)  workmanship,  and  their  appearance  bears 
witness  to  a  comparatively  recent  origin.  For  aught  we  know,  the  wearer 
may  have  been  a  contemporary  of  Roger  Williams. 

Among  the  copper  finds  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States  have  been 
noticed  curious  small  objects  somewhat  resembling  spools  in  shape,  consisting 
of  two  concavo-convex  discs  connected  by  a  central  hollow  axis.  Objects  of 
this  class  are  said  to  have  been  discovered  with  thread  wound  around  the  axis. 
The  collection  contains  a  number  of  such  relics,  most  of  which  were  derived 
from  mounds  near  Savannah,  Tennessee  (Fig.  235).  Their  use  has  not  yet 
been  explained.  From  a  mound  in  the  same  neighborhood  was  obtained  a 
piece  of  copper  sheet  resting  on  a  fragment  of  much  decayed  bark  or  grass 
matting,  impregnated  with  the  green  rust  of  the  copper  (No.  9882  of  the 
collection) . 

Farther  to  the  north,  in  Alaska,  some  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  have  long 
been  known  to  employ  in  the  manufacture  of  tools  and  weapons  native  copper 
obtained  from  a  locality  on  the  Atna  or  Copper  River,  where  it  occurs  in 
rolled  masses,  sometimes  weighing  thirty-six  pounds.  Copper  articles  made 
by  natives  of  Alaska  may  be  seen  in  the  ethnological  department  of  the 
Museum. 


III.  BONE  AND  HORN. 


Although,  generally  speaking,  implements  of  hone  and  horn  of  early  date 
are  not  very  abundant  in  North  American  collections,  they  are  represented  by 
many  characteristic  specimens  in  the  National  Museum,  the  objects  of  bone 
outnumbering  those  of  horn.  The  teeth  and  claws  of  wild  animals,  it  will  be 
seen,  were  chiefly  made  into  ornaments  testifying  the  valor  of  their  wearers. 
Piercers  obtained  from  mounds,  shell-heaps,  etc.,  form  the  most  numerous  class 
of  bone  tools  (Fig.  236,  ancient  village  site  on  one  of  the  Aleutian  Islands; 
Figs.  237  and  238,  mounds  in  Union  County,  Kentucky).  These  perforators 
hear  a  striking  resemblance  to  those  found  among  the  relics  of  the  ancient 
lake-men  of  Switzerland.  A  beautiful  bone  needle  of  somewhat  recent  ap¬ 
pearance  deserves  special  notice  (Fig.  239,  San  Miguel  Island,  California). 
This  needle  is  not  pierced  with  an  eye,  but  exhibits  in  its  stead  two  grooves 
for  fastening  the  thread.  There  are  in  the  collection  several  bone  harpoon- 
heads,  barbed  on  one  side,  and  pierced  with  a  hole  for  attachment  (Fig.  240, 
grave  in  Michigan;  Fig.  241,  Alaska).1  Somewhat  similar  armatures  of  bone, 
derived  from  the  caves  of  the  Dordogne,  in  Southern  France,  are  described 
by  Lartet  and  Christy  in  the  "Reliquiae  Aquitanicae.”  Speaking  of  fishing 
implements,  we  would  mention  well-wrought  bone  hooks  from  Santa  Cruz 
Island,  California  (Fig.  242).  The  shanks  of  the  hooks  are  still  covered  with 
a  coating  of  asphaltum,  evidently  applied  for  securing  the  line.  Contrary  to 
the  general  rule,  the  barbs  in  these  hooks  are  placed  on  the  outer  side. 

California,  further,  has  furnished  a  number  of  whistles  apparently  made 
of  bird  bones  and  provided  with  a  blowing-hole  not  in  the  middle,  but  placed 
nearer  one  extremity  of  the  hollow  bone  than  the  other  (Figs.  243  and  244, 
Mare  Island).  Other  curious  objects  derived  from  California,  more  especially 
from  the  Santa  Barbara  Islands,  are  cups  very  ingeniously  hollowed  out  from 
the  vertebras  of  cetaceans  (Fig.  245,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  These  cups  are 
partly  filled  wfith  asphaltum,  apparently  prepared  to  serve  as  paint.2 


1  Copper  harpoon-heads  of  the  same  shape  (barbs  on  one  side,  hole  for  attachment)  may  be  seen  in  the 
collection.  They  were  obtained  from  Alaska,  and  belong  to  the  modern  fishing  gear  of  the  natives. 

2  Since  the  above  was  written,  the  collection  has  been  enriched  with  many  articles  of  bone  and  horn, 
obtained  from  Californian  graves  by  Mr.  Paul  Schumacher.  Among  them  we  mention  large  wedges  of  elk 
horn  and  whalebone,  polishing  tools  resembling  paper-folders,  rather  ponderous  knife-shaped  articles  of 
whalebone,  and,  lastly,  fifes  with  four  holes. 

Numerous  relics  of  bone  and  horn,  collected  by  Mr.  F.  H.  Cushing  in  the  State  of  New  York,  lately  have 
been  added  to  the  collection.  They  comprise  perforators  of  various  forms  and  sizes,  harpoon-heads,  de¬ 
tached  prongs  of  deer  horn,  more  or  less  polished  at  their  points,  and  probably  employed  as  smoothing 
tools,  modified  beavers’  teeth,  and  various  other  objects. 


(63) 


G4 


BONE  IMPLEMENTS  AND  ORNAMENTS. 


Like  other  races  of  hunters,  the  aborigines  of  North  America  were  in  the 
habit  of  perforating  the  teeth  of  wild  animals  they  had  killed,  and  of  wearing 
them  as  trophies  in  the  shape  of  necklaces  or  pendants.  The  teeth  of  bears, 
it  seems,  formed  the  most  favorite  ornaments  of  this  kind,  being  either  left  in 
their  natural  state  and  merely  pierced  at  the  root  (Fig.  246,  New  York),  or 


IMPLEMENTS  AND  ORNAMENTS  OF  BONE  (}). 


brought  into  a  more  regular  shape  by  grinding  and  smoothing,  like  a  number 
of  specimens  from  Alaska  (Fig.  247),  which  may,  however,  belong  to  a  com¬ 
paratively  recent  period.  Modern  Indians,  it  is  well  known,  wear  as  tokens 
of  their  prowess  necklaces  made  of  the  claws  of  the  grizzly  bear  (Fig.  248, 
Rocky  Mountains,  recent),  and  a  number  of  drilled  claws  of  the  panther 


SMITHSONIAN  AHCIIJEOLOGrlCAL  COLLECTION. 


G5 


(Fells  concolor ),  derived  from  California,  were  probably  used  in  a  like  manner 
by  the  aborigines  of  that  part  of  North  America.  In  these  specimens  the 
perforation  passes  through  the  bony  part  (last  phalanx)  of  the  animal’s  claw 
(Fig.  249,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  •  A  very  curious  ornament  (?)  is  the  pierced 
epiphysis  of  a  long  bone  of  some  animal,  probably  a  deer  (Fig.  250,  mound 
in  Kentucky) . 

Besides  the  objects  or  classes  of  objects  of  bone  thus  far  mentioned  there 
are  other  specimens,  either  in  a  fragmentary  state  or  entire,  the  purposes  of 
which  have  not  yet  been  explained.  As  an  example  may  be  selected  a 
wrought  hollow  bone  somewhat  expanding  at  both  ends  (Fig.  251,  Santa 
Cruz  Island,  California).  It  is  not  attempted  to  assign  a  name  to  this  object, 
which  may  have  been  a  receptacle  or  a  part  of  a  tool,  an  unfinished  whistle,  or, 
perhaps,  an  appendage  to  the  dress.  There  is  a  possibility,  too,  that  it  was 
the  sucking-instrument  of  a  medicine  man,  made  to  replace  one  of  the  stone 
tubes  which  are  known  to  have  been  employed  among  the  Californians  in 
curing  the  sick. 

9 


IY.  SHELLS. 


Shells  being  above  other  natural  productions  particularly  fitted  to  be  made 
into  ornaments,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  were  employed  for  that  purpose 
by  primitive  man  of  all  ages  and  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  North 
American  tribes  utilized,  to  a  great  extent,  the  shells  of  the  sea-coast  as  well 
as  those  of  their  rivers,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  marine  shells  formed 
an  article  of  exchange  in  former  times,  considering  that  they  have  been  met 
among  aboriginal  relics  far  in  the  interior  of  the  country.  This  kind  of  traffic 
has  been  taken  up  at  a  later  period  by  white  traders,  who  derived  great  profit 
in  selling  fine  specimens  to  the  tribes  inhabiting  the  inland.  It  is  known  that 
the  Indians  sometimes  paid  for  a  fine  shell  fur  to  the  value  of  thirty  or  forty 
dollars,  and  more.  Shells  even  seem  to  have  been  looked  upon  with  a  kind  of 
superstitious  reverence,  and  indications  are  not  wanting  that  they  sometimes 
played  a  part  in  their  religious  ceremonies.  Shells,  however,  were  not  exclu¬ 
sively  converted  into  ornaments,  or  preserved  as  objects  of  value,  but  were 
also  employed  as  utensils,  more  especially  as  vessels,  an  application  for  which 
large  species,  such  as  Cassis  and  Bysicon  seemed  particularly  adapted.  The 
Florida  Indians,  when  first  seen  by  Europeans,  used  large  shells  as  drinking- 
cups,  and  when  a  chieftain  died,  the  shell  which  he  had  used  during  lifetime 
(crater  e  quo  bibere  solebat)  was  placed  on  the  apex  of  the  mound  that 
maikecl  his  place  of  burial.1  A  large  Bysicon  perversurn  (Byrula  perversa ) 
made  into  a  drinking  vessel  by  the  removal  of  the  inner  whorls  and  other 
modifications  may  be  seen  in  the  collection  (Fig.  252,  mound  in  Indiana). 
Yalves  of  ZTmo-shells,  somewhat  altered  by  art,  in  order  to  be  handled  with 
greater  convenience,  formed  very  serviceable  spoons  (Fig.  253,  mound  in 
Kentucky).  There  are  several  utensils  of  this  kind  in  the  National  Museum. 
Among  other  objects  designed  for  useful  purposes  should  be  mentioned  celts 
or  adzes  made  of  heavy  shells,  and  identical  in  shape  with  corresponding  tools 
of  stone.  Such  shell  implements  have  been  found  on  the  southern  coasts  of 
the  United  States,  especially  in  Florida,  but  also  at  a  considerable  distance 
from  the  sea-board  (Fig.  254,  Florida;  Fig.  255,  Kentucky).  It  further 
appeals  that  the  Florida  Indians  applied  shells  of  the  Bysicon  perversurn  as 
clubs  or  casse-tetes  by  adapting  them  to  be  used  with  a  handle,  which  was 
made  to  pass  transversely  through  the  shell.  This  was  effected  by  a  hole 


1  De  Bry,  Brevis  Narratio  (Vol.  II,  Frankfort  on  the  Main,  1591),  Plate  40 

(GO) 


SMITHSONIAN  ATtCHJEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION.  67 

pierced  in  the  outer  wall  of  the  last  whorl  in  such  a  manner  as  to  he  somewhat 
to  the  left  of  the  columella,  while  a  notch  in  the  outer  lip,  corresponding  to 
this  hole,  confined  the  handle  or  stick  between  the  outer  edge  of  the  lip  and 
the  inner  edge  of  the  columella.  The  anterior  end  of  the  canal,  broken  off 
until  the  more  solid  part  was  reached,  was  then  brought  to  a  cutting  edge, 
nearly  in  the  plane  of  the  aperture.  A  hole  was  also  made  in  the  posterior 
surface  of  the  spire  behind  the  carina  in  the  last  whorl,  evidently  for  receiving 
a  ligature  by  means  of  which  the  shell  was  more  firmly  lashed  to  the  handle. 


252 


UTENSILS  OF  SHELL. 


Shells  prepared  in  this  manner  have  been  found  on  the  shore  of  Sarasota  Bay 
in  Florida,  a  locality  where  stone  for  manufacturing  axes  is  wanting.  There 
are  several  of  these  modified  shells  in  the  collection. 

California  has  furnished  a  number  of  well-wrought  fish-hooks,  made  of  the 
shell  of  Haliotis ,  which  strongly  resemble  articles  of  the  same  description  in 
use  among  the  islanders  of  the  Pacific  (Fig.  256,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  The 
Californian  coast-tribes,  it  should  be  stated,  employed  shells  in  various  ways, 
chiefly,  however,  in  the  production  of  objects  of  personal  adornment,  which 
will  be  considered  hereafter.  That  they  utilized  the  unaltered  shells  of  Ilali- 
otis ,  Cardium ,  Peden,  Patella ,  Spondylus ,  and  Panopcea  as  the  receptacles 


08 


SHELL  ORNAMENTS  AXD  UTENSILS. 


for  asphaltum  (paint?)  is  demonstrated  by  a  number  of  shells  still  filled  with 
that  substance,  which  were  obtained  from  graves  on  the  Santa  Barbara  group 
of  islands,  and  but  lately  added  to  the  collection  of  the  National  Museum. 

The  Indian  shell  ornament  in  its  simplest  form  consists  of  entire  marine 
shells,  such  as  species  of  Marginella ,  Naiica,  Pecten,  Oliva ,  Strombus,  etc., 
and  of  valves  of  fresh- water  mollusks  (chiefly  of  the  Unio  kind),  which,  after 
being  truncated  at  the  apex,  or  pierced  with  a  hole,  could  be  strung  together 
(forming  necklaces,  bracelets,  etc.)  or  suspended  at  once  without  further  prep¬ 
aration  (Fig.  257,  Strombus  pugilis,  shell-heap,  Florida;2  Fig.  258,  Unio, 
Tennessee;  Fig.  259,  Olivella  biplicata,  San  Miguel  Island,  California;  Fig. 
2G0,  Oliva  liter ata,  Florida;  Fig.  261,  Pecten  concentricus ,  Florida).3  Far 
more  frequent  than  entire  shells  pierced  to  be  used  as  beads  and  pendants  are 
objects  of  the  same  class  cut  from  the  valves  of  marine  and  fluviatile  mollusks. 
The  wrought  beads  exhibit  various  forms  and  sizes,  but  are  very  frequently 
found  in  the  shape  of  more  or  less  regular  sections  of  cylinders,  more  rarely 
of  prisms,  pierced  through  the  middle  (Figs.  262  and  263,  originals  partly 
covered  with  oxide  of  iron,  Dos  Pueblos,  California;  Fig.  264,  Santa  Bar¬ 
bara  County,  California;  Fig.  265,  Dos  Pueblos).  Many  shell  beads,  how¬ 
ever,  are  not  cylindrical,  but  of  roundish  or  irregular  contours.  The  largest 
beads  were  made  from  the  columellas  of  massive  shells  ( Bysicon ,  Strombus ) 
and  many  of  these  still  exhibit  a  portion  of  the  columellar  spiral  groove  (Fig. 
266,  Georgia).  Such  beads  are  generally  more  or  less  cylindrical,  or  globular, 
and  drilled  in  the  direction  of  the  longer  axis.  Some  taper  at  both  ends, 
resembling  a  cigar  in  shape.  Very  remarkable  specimens  of  this  kind  were 
obtained  from  California  (Fig.  267,  San  Miguel  Island).  In  some  of  them 
the  spiral  groove  is  deepened  by  art  and  filled  with  asphaltum,  doubtless  with 
a  view  to  improve  their  appearance.  Specimens  of  this  kind  may  have  con¬ 
stituted  some  part  of  the  head-dress. 

The  aborigines  also  made  from  the  columellm  of  large  marine  univalves 
peculiar  pin-shaped  articles,  consisting  of  a  more  or  less  massive  stem  which 
terminates  in  a  round  knob  or  disc  (Fig.  268,  Florida).  There  have  been 
found  specimens  measuring  six  inches  in  length.  Their  destination  is  as  yet 
unexplained;  they  were,  perhaps,  attached  to  the  head-dress,  or  worn  as 
ornaments  in  some  other  way. 

Of  particular  interest  are  the  wampum-beads,  which  represented  the  money 
among  many  tribes  of  aborigines,  forming  also  valued  ornaments  (necklaces, 
bracelets,  etc.),  and  constituting  the  strings  and  belts  of  wampum,4  which 
played  such  a  conspicuous  part  in  Indian  history,  being  exchanged  at  the 


2 This  shell  is  pierced  with  a  second  hole  noticeable  in  the  drawing.  The  size  of  the  holes  and  the  weight 
oi  the  shell  render  it  possible,  that  it  was  not  used  as  an  ornament,  but  for  some  other  purpose.  It  may  have 
been  a  net-sinker. 

3  Similarly  pierced  shells  of  Pecten  ai-e  strung  together  and  used  as  rattles  by  the  natives  of  the  North¬ 
west  Coast. 

4  1  he  word  “wampum”  is  derived  from  wompam,  signifying  white  in  the  language  of  the  Narragansetts. — 
Roger  Williams  :  “A  Key  into  the  Language  of  America,”  Providence,  1827,  p.  130. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION 


GD 


conclusion  of  peace  and  on  other  solemn  occasions,  in  order  to  ratify  the 
transaction,  and  to  perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  the  event.  The  term 
"wampum”  is  often  applied  to  shell  beads  in  general,  but  might  with  propriety 


259 


SHELL  ORNAMENTS  (-J-). 


be  confined  to  a  certain  class  of  cylindrical  beads,  usually  one-fourth  of  an 
inch  long,  but  sometimes  much  longer,  and  drilled  lengthwise,  which  were 
chiefly  manufactured  from  the  shells  of  the  common  hard-shell  clam  (  Venus 


70 


SHELL  ORNAMENTS  AND  UTENSILS. 


mercenaria).  This  bivalve,  occurring,  as  every  one  knows,  in  great  abundance 
on  the  North  American  coasts,  formed  an  important  article  of  food  of  the 
Indians  living  near  the  sea,  a  fact  demonstrated  by  the  enormous  quantities 
of  castaway  clam-shells,  which  form  a  considerable  part  of  North  American 
shell-heaps.  The  natives  used  to  string  the  mollusks  and  to  dry  them  for 
consumption  during  winter.  The  blue  or  violet  portion  of  the  clam-shells 
furnished  the  material  for  the  dark  wampum,  which  was  held  in  much  higher 
estimation  than  that  made  of  the  white  parts  of  the  shells,  or  of  the  spines  of 
certain  univalves.  Roger  Williams  states  that  the  Indians  of  New  England 
manufactured  white  and  dark  wampum-beads,  and  that  six  of  the  former  and 
three  of  the  latter  were  equivalent  to  an  English  penny.5  Yet,  it  appears  that 
even  at  his  time  the  colonists  imitated  the  wampum,  a  practice  which  assumed 
the  proportions  of  a  regular  business  in  later  times,  porcelain,  glass,  and 
enamel  being  the  materials  employed  in  facsimilizing  them.  Much  wampum, 
however,  was  made  by  whites  from  clam-shells,  and  hence  arises  the  difficulty 
of  smsTing1  out  the  genuine  Indian  manufactures.  In  the  intercourse  of  the 
New  England  colonists  among  themselves,  wampum  served  at  certain  periods 
instead  of  the  common  currency,  and  the  courts  issued,  from  time  to  time, 
regulations  for  fixing  the  value  of  this  shell-money.  In  transactions  of  some 
importance  it  was  measured  by  the  fathom,  the  dark  or  blue  kind  generally 
being  double  the  value  of  the  white. 

There  are  many  beads  and  strings  of  wampum  in  the  collection;  yet  owing 
to  the  circumstances  just  mentioned,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  recognize  the  real 
Indian  productions  (Fig.  2G9,  Upper  Missouri;  doubtless  brought  there  by 
way  of  trade) .  The  peculiar  kind  of  wampum  here  treated  was  chiefly  in  use 
east  of  the  Mississippi  River,  though  shells,  either  entire  or  cut  into  beads, 
assumed  the  character  of  money  in  parts  far  beyond  that  river.  Among  the 
tribes  of  the  northwestern  coast  of  North  America,  from  the  northern  border 
of  California  far  upward  into  Alaska,  the  shells  of  the  Dentalinm  represented, 
until  within  the  latest  time,  the  wampum  of  the  eastern  regions,  being  used,  like 
the  latter,  both  as  ornament  and  money.  These  shells,  which  occur  in  certain 
places  of  the  Pacific  coast,  may  be  likened  to  small,  tapering,  and  somewhat 
curved  tubes,  and,  being  open  at  both  ends,  they  could  be  strung  without 
further  preparation.  Among  the  Southern  Californians  the  circulating  medium 
consisted,  according  to  II.  H.  Bancroft,  of  small  round  pieces  of  the  white 
muscle-sliell.  These  were  perforated  and  arranged  on  strings,  the  value  of 
which  depended  on  their  length.  There  is  a  quantity  of  small  perforated  shell 
discs  in  the  collection,  which  were  obtained  from  Southern  California,  and 
may  have  constituted  the  money  of  the  aborigines.  These  small  discs,  how¬ 
ever,  are  concavo-convex,  and  evidently  were  not  cut  from  the  muscle-shell.6 


5  A  Key,  etc  ,  p.  128. 

“It  appears  probable  that  among  the  natives  of  that  region  the  Olivella  biplicata  and  the  land-shell  Helix 
strigosa  served  as  substitutes  for  money.  Mr.  Paul  Schumacher  discovered  on  San  Nicolas  Island  deposits 
of  these  shells,  which  had  been  stored  in  the  sandy  ground,  and  formed  diminutive  hillocks,  having  been 
uncovered  by  the  action  of  the  winds. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


71 


Returning  to  the  objects  of  shell  of  purely  ornamental  character,  we  would 
mention  flat  discs  with  a  central  hole,  which  were  probably  not  strung  like  the 
ordinary  beads,  but  arranged  in  some  other  way.  Quite  a  number  of  these 
discs,  made  of  fluviatile  shells,  were  found  some  years  ago  in  the  now  leveled 
"Big  Mound”  at  St.  Louis.  Some  of  them  measure  more  than 'an  inch  in 
diameter.  The  collection  contains  similar  discs  perforated  with  several  holes, 
and  sometimes  ornamented  around  the  circumference,  which  were  obtained 
from  California  (Figs.  270  and  271,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  They  are  cut  from 
the  //afoofo’s-shell.  Increasing  in  size,  the  shell  discs  assume  the  character 
of  gorgets,  which  were  worn  suspended  from  the  neck,  or  attached  in  some 
way  to  the  dress.  They  are  round  or  oval  plates,  from  two  to  four  inches  and 
more  in  diameter,  on  which  designs  are  engraved  or  cut  through.  The  orna¬ 
mentation  is  traced  on  the  concave  side,  which  formerly  exhibited  the  shining 
part  of  the  shell.  The  collection  contains,  among  other  specimens,  an  or¬ 
namented  shell  gorget  from  Tennessee,  which  is  now  perfectly  bleached  by 
age,  but  evidently  formed  a  beautiful  decoration  while  in  its  original  state 
(Fig.  272).  It  is  pierced  with  two  holes  for  suspension  and  with  two  lateral 
holes,  probably  intended  for  further  fastening.  The  ornamental  tracing  on 
this  specimen  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  pattern  engraved  on  a 
shell  gorget  figured  on  Plate  XXX  of  the  "Antiquities  of  the  Southern  In¬ 
dians”  by  Charles  C.  Jones.  The  similarity  in  the  designs  of  such  shell 
plates  has  been  pointed  out  by  the  late  Professor  Jeffries  Wyman.7  Some 
shell  discs  are  ornamented  with  regularly  disposed  perforations,  and  others 
are  entirely  plain,  showing  only  the  holes  for  suspension  (Fig.  273,  mound  in 
Kentucky).  Such  specimens,  whitened  by  having  lain  for  centuries  in  the 
ground,  offer  now  little  attraction  to  the  eye,  though  they  must  have  consti¬ 
tuted  beautiful  ornaments  when  exhibiting  the  pearly  coating  of  the  shell. 

The  round  or  oval  gorgets  just  described  are  made  from  _Z?y.S7co?i-shells, 
which  were  also  employed  in  the  production  of  another  class  of  large  orna¬ 
ments,  representing  very  rudely  executed  human  faces.  They  are  pear- 
shaped,  from  five  to  six  inches  long,  and  about  four  inches  wide  in  the 
broadest  part,  where  they  are  pierced  with  two  small  holes,  evidently  intended 
for  eyes.  A  slight  elevation  marks  the  nose,  below  which  there  is  sometimes 
seen  a  third  hole  indicating  the  mouth.  In  addition,  the  surface  is  often 
ornamented  with  incised  lines.  The  decoration  in  these  typical  objects,  which 
probably  served  as  gorgets,  is  executed  on  the  convex  part  of  the  shell.  They 
have  been  found  in  mounds  of  Tennessee,  and  elsewhere. 

Shell-matter  was  wrought  into  a  variety  of  other  ornaments  designed  for 
suspension  or  attachment.  In  most  instances  the  fastening  was  effected  by 
perforations,  but  exceptionally  by  grooves,  as  in  the  case  of  a  small  pendant, 
pear-shaped  in  outline,  which  may  have  formed  an  appendage  to  a  string  of 


7  The  tracing  often  shows  the  figure  of  a  coiled  rattle-snake. — Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Trustees  of 
the  Peabody  Museum,  Boston,  1872,  p.  17. 


79  SHELL  OEN  AMENTS  AND  UTENSILS. 

beads  (Fig.  274,  New  York).  The  Southern  Californians  chiefly  employed 
the  nacreous  IIaliotis-s\\c\\  as  the  material  for  their  ornaments,  which  are 
abundantly  represented  in  the  collection  of  the  National  Museum.  There 
are  for  instance,  ornaments  shaped  like  a  ring,  provided  with  a  pierced  stem 
projecting  from  its  circumference  (Fig.  275,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  Such  objects 
may  have  been  worn  as  ear-pendants.  Another  class  of  Californian  ornaments 
cut  from  the  Ilaliotis ,  consists  of  somewhat  crescent-shaped  pieces  truncated 
at  their  extremities,  and  pierced  for  suspension  (Fig.  27G,  Dos  Pueblos). 
They  may  have  been  worn  as  gorgets.  Still  other  objects  of  decoration  ( .J)  are 
cut  in  a  variety  of  hardly  definable,  irregular  forms,  which  present,  however, 
generally  rounded  outlines  (Fig.  2 <7,  Santa  Cruz  Island;  Fig.  2<S,  Dos 
Pueblos).  The  holes  drilled  through  them  characterize  them  as  objects 
designed  to  be  suspended  or  attached.8  The  Californian  specimens  here 
treated,  although  stained  by  age,  retain  much  of  their  iridescent  nacre,  and 
a  more  recent  origin  must  be  ascribed  to  them  than  to  the  described  shell 
objects  taken  from  mounds  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the  United  States. 
Lastly,  there  should  be  noticed  among  the  Californian  specimens  a  peculiar 
class  of  relics  cut  from  the  shell  of  Lucajpina  crenulata ,  and  approaching  in 
shape  an  oval,  from  which  the  middle  portion  has  been  lemoved,  lea\ing  an 
oval  hole  (Fig.  279,  San  Miguel  Island).  As  yet  it  is  not  known  whether 
articles  of  this  description  formed  ornaments,  or  were  employed  in  a  more 
profitable  manner. 


8 Mr.  Paul  Schumacher  figures  in  the  manuscript  report  of  his  explorations  in  Southern  California  diaw- 
in-s  of  worked  and  pierced  pieces  of  shell,  somewhat  resembling  the  original  of  Fig.  278.  These  objects, 
bethinks,  were  fastened  to  the  end  of  fishing-lines  to  attract  the  prey,  in  accordance  with  the  present  mode 
of  trolling  with  a  spoon-hook. 


Y.  CLAY. 


In  treating  of  North  American  manufactures  of  clay,  it  appears  proper  to 
begin  with  those  of  a  useful  character,  that  is,  with  the  vessels  employed  by 
the  aborigines  for  culinary  and  other  purposes.  Before  the  advent  of  the 
whites,  pottery  formed  an  important  branch  of  industry  among  the  eastern 
Indians,  who  discovered,  however,  soon  after  their  contact  with  the  whites 
the  superiority  of  the  metallic  vessels  which  they  obtained  in  trafficking  with 
them,  and  consequently  ceased  to  manufacture  pottery  at  a  very  early  period. 
On  the  other  hand,  many  tribes  in  the  Western  Territories  (New  Mexico,  Ari¬ 
zona,  Utah,  etc.)  still  practise  the  ceramic  art,  producing  earthenware  of  a 
very  creditable  character,  numerous  specimens  of  which  are  preserved  in  the 
collection  of  the  National  Museum.  On  a  rough  estimate,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  art  of  pottery,  as  practised  in  the  aboriginal  fashion,  has  become  extinct  in 
the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States.  There  is  indeed,  still  some  pottery 
made  by  Indians  in  that  part  of  the  Union,  but  it  hardly  can  be  called  Indian 
pottery.  Thus,  the  Catawba  Indians,  residing  upon  the  banks  of  the  Catawba 
Kiver  in  York  County,  South  Carolina,- — an  insignificant  remnant  of  a  once 
powerful  tribe — still  make  a  kind  of  unglazed  pottery,  not  according  to  abo¬ 
riginal  taste,  but  in  close  imitation  of  the  ceramic  productions  of  the  whites. 
Instead  of  bowls  and  cooking-pots  of  the  Indian  type,  they  manufacture  cups 
and  saucers,  tea-pots,  pitchers  and  basins,  flower-pots,  and  other  species  of 
earthenware  of  patterns  altogether  distinct  from  the  models  in  vogue  among 
their  forefathers.  The  writings  of  early  and  even  comparatively  modern 
authors  on  North  America  are  not  deficient  in  particulars  relating  to  the  art 
of  pottery  among  the  natives  occupying  the  eastern  area  of  the  present  United 
States.  According  to  their  statements,  those  tribes  were  most  advanced  in 
the  manufacture  of  earthenware,  who  inhabited  the  large  tracts  of  land  for¬ 
merly  called  Florida  and  Louisiana,  which  comprise  at  present  the  Gulf  States 
and  those  adjacent  to  the  Lower  Mississippi,  and  their  testimony  is  fully  cor¬ 
roborated  by  the  character  of  such  specimens  of  pottery  from  those  parts  as 
have  escaped  destruction  and  are  preserved  in  the  collections  of  the  country. 
Though  the  sites  of  ancient  Indian  settlements  are  frequently  strewn  with 
innumerable  fragments  of  pottery,  entire  vessels  of  early  date  have  almost 
exclusively  been  obtained  from  mounds  and  other  burial-places,  where  they  had 
been  deposited  by  the  side  of  the  dead,  either  for  holding  food,  or  designed  to 
be  of  service  to  the  deceased  in  his  fancied  world  ol  spirits. 


10 


(73) 


74 


POTTERY. 


The  manufacture  and  character  of  Indian  pottery  have  been  described  by 
Du  Pratz,  Dumont,  Adair,  Loskiel,  and  various  other  authors.  "  The  women;’ 
says  Du  Pratz,  in  treating  of  the  pottery  of  the  natives  ot  Louisiana,  make 
pots  of  an  extraordinary  size,  jars  with  a  small  opening,  bowls,  two-pint  bot¬ 
tles  with  long  necks,  pots  or  jugs  for  preserving  bear  oil,  holding  as  much  as 
forty  pints,  and,  finally,  plates  and  dishes  in  the  French  fashion.”  1  Dumont, 
who  likewise  describes  the  manners  of  the  Indians  of  Louisiana,  has  left  a 
more  minute  account  of  the  method  they  employed  in  making  earthenware. 
He  says:  "After  having  amassed  the  proper  kind  of  clay  and  carefully  cleaned 
it,  the  Indian  women  take  shells  which  they  pound  and  reduce  to  a  fine  pow¬ 
der;  they  mix  this  powder  with  the  clay,  and  having  poured  some  water  on 
the  mass,  they  knead  it  with  their  hands  and  feet,  and  make  it  into  a  paste,  of 
which  they  form  rolls  six  or  seven  feet  long  and  of  a  thickness  suitable  to  their 
purpose.  If  they  intend  to  fashion  a  plate  or  a  vase,  they  take  hold  of  one  of 
these  rolls  by  the  end,  and  fixing  here  with  the  thumb  of  the  left  hand  the 
centre  of  the  vessel  they  are  about  to  make,  they  turn  the  roll  with  astonishing 
quickness  around  the  centre,  describing  a  spiral  line;  now  and  then  they  dip 
their  fingers  in  the  water  and  smooth  with  the  right  hand  the  inner  and  outer 
surface  of  the  vase  they  intend  to  fashion,  which  would  become  ruffled  or  un¬ 
dulated  without  that  manipulation.  In  this  manner  they  make  all  sorts  of 
earthen  vessels,  plates,  dishes,  bowls,  pots,  and  jars,  some  of  which  hold  from 
forty  to  fifty  pints.  The  burning  of  this  pottery  does  not  cause  them  much 
trouble.  Having  dried  it  in  the  shade,  they  kindle  a  large  fire,  and  when  they 
have  a  sufficient  quantity  of  embers,  they  clean  a  space  in  the  middle,  where 
they  deposit  their  vessels  and  cover  them  with  charcoal.  Thus  they  bake  their 
earthenware,  which  can  now  be  exposed  to  the  fire,  and  possesses  as  much 
durability  as  ours.  Its  solidity  is  doubtless  to  be  attributed  to  the  pulverized 
shells  which  the  women  mix  with  the  clay.”2  Adair,  more  than  a  century  ago 
a  trader  with  the  tribes  who  occupied  the  southern  portion  of  the  present 
Union,  states  as  follows:  "They  make  earthen  pots  of  very  different  sizes,  so 
as  to  contain  from  two ‘to  ten  gallons;  large  pitchers  to  carry  water;  bowls, 
dishes,  platters,  basins,  and  a  prodigious  number  of  other  vessels  of  such  an¬ 
tiquated  forms  as  would  be  tedious  to  describe  and  impossible  to  name.  Their 
method  of  glazing  them  is,  they  place  them  over  a  large  fire  of  smoky  pitch- 
pine,  which  makes  them  smooth,  black,  and  firm.  Their  lands  abound  with 
proper  clay  for  that  use.”3  A  very  good  account  relating  to  the  art  of  pot¬ 
tery,  as  formerly  practised  by  the  tribes  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  is  given  by 
Hunter:  "In  manufacturing  their  pottery  for  cooking  and  domestic  purposes,” 
he  says,  "they  collect  tough  clay,  beat  it  into  powder,  temper  it  with  water, 
and  then  spread  it  over  blocks  of  wood,  which  have  been  formed  into  shapes 
to  suit  their  convenience  or  fancy.  AVhen  sufficiently  dried,  they  are  removed 


1 1)u  Pratz  :  II istoire  de  la  Louisiane,  Paris,  1758,  Vol.  IT,  p.  179. 

2 Dumont:  Memoires  Ilistoriques  sur  la  Louisiane,  Paris,  1753,  Vol.  II,  p.  271. 

3 Adair:  History  of  the  American  Indians,  London,  1775,  p.  424. 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


75 


from  the  moulds,  placed  in  proper  situations,  and  burned  to  a  hardness  suitable 
to  their  intended  uses.  Another  method  practised  by  them  is,  to  coat  the 
inner  surface  of  baskets,  made  of  rushes  or  willows,  with  clay,  to  any  required 
thickness,  and  when  dry,  to  burn  them  as  above  described.  In  this  way  they 
construct  large,  handsome,  and  tolerably  durable  ware;  though  latterly,  with 
such  tribes  as  have  much  intercourse  with  the  whites,  it  is  not  much  used, 
because  of  the  substitution  of  cast-iron  ware  in  its  stead.  When  these  vessels 
are  large,  as  is  the  case  for  the  manufacture  of  sugar,  they  are  suspended  by 
grape-vines,  which,  wherever  exposed  to  the  fire,  are  constantly  kept  covered 
with  moist  clay.  Sometimes,  however,  the  rims  are  made  strong,  and  project 
a  little  inwardly  quite  round  the  vessel  so  as  to  admit  of  their  being  sustained 
by  flattened  pieces  of  wood  slid  underneath  these  projections  and  extending 
across  their  centres.” 4 

It  would  be  erroneous  to  suppose  the  art  of  manufacturing  clay  vessels  had 
been  in  use  among  all  the  tribes  spread  over  this  widely  extended  country; 
for,  though  exhibiting  much  general  similarity  in  character  and  habits,  they 
differed  considerably  in  their  attainments  in  the  mechanical  arts.  Some  of  the 
North  American  tribes,  who  did  not  understand  the  fabrication  of  earthen 
vessels,  were  in  the  habit  of  cooking  their  meat  in  water  set  to  boiling  by 
means  of  heated  stones  which  they  put  into  it,  the  receptacles  used  in  this 
operation  being  large  wooden  bowls  or  troughs,  water-tight  baskets,  or  even 
the  hides  of  animals  they  had  killed.  The  Assineboins,  for  example,  cooked 
in  skins,  as  described  by  Catlin. 

Generally  speaking,  the  aborigines  of  North  America  acquainted  with  the 
art  of  pottery  formed  their  vessels  by  hand,  modeling  them  sometimes  in 
woven  baskets  of  rushes  or  willows,  and  were,  as  far  as  we  know,  unac¬ 
quainted  with  the  art  of  glazing.  They  mixed  the  clay  used  in  their  pottery 
either  with  pounded  shells  or  sand,  or  with  pulverized  silicious  rocks;  mica 
also  formed  sometimes  a  part  of  the  composition.  In  many  cases,  however, 
the  clay  was  employed  in  an  unmixed  state.  Their  vessels  were  often  painted 
with  ochre,  producing  various  shades,  from  a  light  yellow  to  a  dark  brown,  or 
with  a  black  color.  They  decorated  their  pottery  with  incised  straight  or 
curved  lines  or  combinations  of  lines  and  dots,  and  embellished  it  also  by  notch¬ 
ing  the  rims,  or  surrounding  them  on  the  outside  with  studs  or  in  various 
other  ways.  The  vessels  exhibited  a  great  variety  of  forms  and  sizes,  and 
many  of  them  had  rounded  or  convex  bottoms.  The  aborigines  hardened 
their  earthenware  in  open  fires  or  in  kilns,  and,  notwithstanding  the  favorable 
statements  of  some  authors,  it  was  much  inferior  in  compactness  to  the  com¬ 
mon  ware  manufactured  in  Europe  or  America. 

These  remarks,  it  should  be  understood,  apply  to  the  pottery  made  by  the 
Indians  who  inhabited  the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States.  A  superior  kind 


4  Hunter :  Manners  and  Customs  of  several  Indian  Tribes  located  west  of  the  Mississippi,  Philadelphia, 
1823,  p.  296. 


76 


POTTERY. 


of  pottery  was  manufactured  in  the  more  western  regions  of  the  continent,  as 
shown  by  numerous  fragments  of  ancient  earthenware  which  occur,  for  in¬ 
stance,  on  the  Little  Colorado  and  Gila,  especially  among  ruins,  and  are  often 
highly  decorated  and  painted  with  various  colors,  exhibiting  a  style  of  work¬ 
manship  differing  from,  and  surpassing  that,  which  prevailed  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  superiority  of  Mexican  pottery  compared 
with  that  of  the  more  northern  tribes  is  too  well  known  to  be  particularly 
dwelled  upon. 

The  simplest  clay  vessels  left  by  the  eastern  aborigines  are  bowls  of  a 
more  or  less  semi-globular  shape,  cut  off  abruptly  at  the  rim  and  destitute 
of  decoration  or  any  kind  of  handles.  Such  specimens  vary  much  in  size, 
and  are  often  of  rude  workmanship.  The  more  elaborate  articles  of  this 
class,  however,  show  two  or  more  projections  immediately  below  the  rim. 
Of  this  class  is  a  vessel  with  four  small  horizontal  projections,  probably  put 
on  for  the  sake  of  convenience  as  well  as  for  ornament.  In  this  specimen  the 
clay  is  mixed  with  particles  of  coarsely  pulverized  shells  (Fig.  280,  mound  in 
Tennessee).  This  vessel  is  not  of  very  good  workmanship.  Much  better  is 
a  round  bowl  of  larger  size,  provided  on  one  side  with  a  handle  in  the  shape 
of  the  head  and  neck  of  a  bird  (perhaps  intended  for  a  duck),  and  balanced, 
as  it  were,  on  the  other  by  a  plain  handle  rising  obliquely  from  the  rim.  With 
some  imagination  the  bird’s  tail  might  be  recognized  in  the  second  handle 
(Fig.  281,  mound  in  Illinois).  In  this  specimen  the  clay  is  slightly  mixed 
with  pulverized  shells,  and  the  outside  was  originally  painted  brown.  Similar 
bird-shaped  bowls  have  been  figured  and  described;  also  such  in  which  a 
human  head  takes  the  place  of  that  of  a  bird.  Bowls  of  a  more  elaborate 
shape  contract  more  or  less  toward  the  aperture,  where  they  terminate  in  a 
rising  rim.  Such  bowls  are  often  furnished  with  projections  or  ears  for  facili¬ 
tating  handling.  A  specimen  of  this  kind  (Fig.  282),  which  was  taken  froip 
a  mound  in  Union  County,  Kentucky,  is  set  with  four  ears  around  the  circum¬ 
ference.  Another  bowl,  formed  of  clay  strongly  mixed  with  pounded  shells, 
shows  four  equidistant  small  projections  in  the  plane  of  the  aperture.  The 
shoulder  portion  is  ornamented  with  crescent-shaped  impressions  (Fig.  283, 
mound  in  Tennessee).  A  third  specimen  of  the  class  under  consideration  is 
furnished  with  two  mutilated  studs  projecting  below  the  shoulder  (Fig.  284, 
Arkansas).  It  is  shaped  with  tolerable  regularity  and  much  better  burned 
than  any  of  those  thus  far  described.  This  vessel  seems  to  have  been  origi¬ 
nally  coated  with  black  paint.  Small  particles  of  shells  are  visible  in  the  clay. 

A  peculiar,  though  by  no  means  uncommon  type  is  shown  in  a  fine  speci¬ 
men  very  broad  near  the  bottom  and  contracting,  without  forming  a  shoulder, 
toward  the  comparatively  narrow  aperture.  This  vessel  (Fig.  285,  mound  in 
Korth  Carolina)  is  flat-bottomed  and  ornamented  on  the  outside  with  deeply 
incised  curved  lines,  distributed  in  regular  patterns.  There  are  small  particles 
of  mica  and  of  other  stone  perceivable  in  the  mass  of  the  clay. 

Vessels  in  which  the  portion  projecting  above  the  shoulder  becomes  narrow 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


77 


and  forms  a  kind  of  neck  approach  the  bottle  shape.  Of  this  character  is  a 
well-made  and  elegantly  formed  specimen  from  a  mound  in  Tennessee  (Fig. 
286).  The  original  paint,  a  bright  red,  has  not  been  totally  effaced  by  time. 
A  somewhat  smaller,  but  very  gracefully  shaped  vessel  of  this  kind,  which  is 


CLAY  VESSELS  (£). 


ornamented  with  regular  figures  formed  by  circles  and  other  curved  lines  radi¬ 
ating  from  them,  was  discovered  in  a  Louisiana  mound  (Fig.  287).  This  ves¬ 
sel  narrows  toward  the  flat  bottom,  and  its  cylindrical  neck  is  provided  with 
a  prominent  lip.  It  appears  to  consist  of  pure  or  nearly  pure  clay,  is  of  a 
light-brown  color  passing  into  black  in  some  places,  and  has  hardly  suffered 


78 


POTTERY. 


from  the  effects  of  time.  Vessels  of  this  description,  though  resembling  each 
other  in  general  contour,  present  a  great  variety  of  shapes,  but  they  are  in 
most  cases  less  carefully  moulded  than  the  two  specimens  just  described. 
Some  arc  small,  measuring  only  a  few  inches  in  height.  A  specimen  from  a 
mound  in  Tennessee  (Fig.  288),  by  no  means  the  smallest  in  the  collection,  is 


290 


CLAY  VESSELS  (]-). 


four  inches  and  a  half  high,  and  consists  of  unpainted  clay,  with  the  usual  ad¬ 
mixture  of  triturated  shells.  A  larger  vessel  with  a  wide  neck  is  distinguished 
by  a  rather  tasteful  ornamentation  and  a  reddish  brown  paint  still  adhering  to 
the  clay  (Fig.  289,  grave  near  Milledgeville,  Georgia).  These  vessels  with 
high  and  wide  necks  may  be  considered  as  typical.  Of  a  quite  different  shape 
is  a  flat-bottomed  ornamented  specimen  inwardly  curved  towards  the  bottom, 
and  provided  with  a  narrow  mutilated  neck  (Fig  290,  mound  in  Louisiana). 


CLAY  VESSELS  (|). 


The  collection  contains  a  number  of  large  vessels  which,  on  account  of  their 
long  and  narrow  necks,  present  the  true  bottle  shape.  A  well-preserved  speci¬ 
men  of  this  kind  (Fig.  291)  was  obtained  from  a  Tennessee  mound.  The 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


79 


neck  slightly  expands  at  the  aperture,  and  where  it  joins  the  body  of  the  ves¬ 
sel  it  is  surrounded  by  eight  ornamental  studs  set  in  pairs.  This  vessel  was 
never  painted,  and  therefore  shows  the  natural  gray  color  of  the  clay,  in  which 
numerous  diminutive  fragments  of  shell  can  be  seen.  One  of  the  finest 
pieces  of  pottery  in  the  collection  (Fig.  292)  is  a  bottle-shaped  jar  furnished 
with  a  stout  and  convenient  handle.  The  mutilated  neck  only  shows  a  some¬ 
what  rude  linear  ornamentation.  This  specimen,  which  consists  of  a  gray 
unpainted  clay,  mixed  with  small  particles  of  a  black  mineral  substance,  was 
taken  from  a  mound  near  Provo,  Utah  Territory. 

There  are  in  the  collection  some  very  large  vessels  which  undoubtedly  were 
designed  for  cooking  purposes.  One  of  them  (Fig.  293)  is  more  than  four¬ 
teen  inches  high,  and  measures  nearly  thirteen  inches  across  the  aperture. 
The  portion  below  the  rim 
shows  a  depression  which 
rendered  suspension  prac¬ 
ticable.  This  method  had 
to  be  resorted  to,  because 
the  kettle  could  not  stand 
on  its  lower  part  which 
presents  an  almost  conical 
shape.  The  outer  surface 
of  the  vessel  shows  impres¬ 
sions  of  tolerably  regular 
pattern  and  apparently  not 
traced  by  hand,  a  circum¬ 
stance  rendering  it  prob¬ 
able  that  the  vessel  was 
modeled  in  a  woven  basket. 

This  remarkable  specimen 
was  ploughed  up  not  far 
from  Milledgeville,  Geor¬ 
gia.  Large  clay  vessels 
of  a  more  elongated  form, 
though  less  conical  at  the  bottom,  undoubtedly  were  employed  as  funeral 
vases  among  certain  tribes  of  the  South,  for  several  such  vessels  containing 
human  bones  have  been  taken  from  southern  mounds.  A  specimen  of  this 
description  is  preserved  in  the  National  Museum.  This  vase,  which  was  badly 
injured  during  its  exhumation,  resembles  in  general  outline  and  size  the  speci¬ 
men  just  described.  The  depression  below  the  rim  is  somewhat  shallower,  the 
lower  portion  more  rounded,  and  the  outside  shows  impressions  of  a  rather  in¬ 
distinct  character.  The  vessel  was  discovered  in  a  low  mound  on  the  Oconee 
River,  nine  miles  below  Milledgeville,  Georgia.  "When  found,  it  was  covered 
with  a  well-fitting  arched  lid,  and  contained  unburned  human  bones,  which 
soon  crumbled  to  dust  upon  exposure  to  the  air  (Nr.  12305  of  the  collection). 

The  largest  vessels  made  by  the  Indians,  it  seems,  were  those  used  in  pro- 


CLAY  VESSEL  (-]-)  . 


80 


POTTERY. 


294 


curing  salt  by  evaporation  near  salt  springs.  In  such  localities  there  have 
been  found  thick  fragments  of  rude  earthenware,  bespeaking  vessels  as  large 
as  a  barrel.  This  kind  of  pottery  is  usually  mixed  with  coarsely  pounded 
shells.  The  collection  contains  such  fragments  derived  from  Tennessee  and 
other  States,  but  no  entire  or  nearly  entire  vessel,  and  the  writer  is  not  aware 
that  a  perfect  specimen  is  preserved  in  any  collection  of  the  United  States.5 

Among1  the  largfe  number  of  smaller  vessels  in  the  Museum  we  take  notice 
of  one  which  is  remarkable  for  a  depression  encircling  its  middle,  giving  the 
object  almost  the  appearance  of  two  bowls,  one  placed  upon  the  other  (Fig. 
294,  mound  in  Louisiana).  This  specimen,  which  is  flat-bottomed  and  rudely 
ornamented  with  lines  and  dots,  represents  a  type,  though  not  one  that  is  very 
frequently  met.  Similar  vessels  are  still  made  by  the  Zuni  Indians.6  A  very 

curious  vessel,  obtained 
from  a  mound  in  Tennes¬ 
see,  is  made  in  imitation  of 
a  fish,  in  which  ichthyolo¬ 
gists  have  recognized  the 
sun-fish  (. Pomotis ),  an  in¬ 
habitant  of  the  Mississippi 
River.  The  neck,  about 
an  inch  in  height,  rises 
from  the  right  side  of  the 
fish  (Fig.  295,  upper  view) . 
A  smaller  and  less  elabo¬ 
rate  specimen  of  the  same 
shape,  taken  from  a  mound 
in  Louisiana,  is  preserved 
in  the  Museum.  Such 
forms  might  be  looked 
for  in  collections  of  an¬ 
cient  Peruvian  pottery. 


29G 


297 


CLAY  VESSELS  (|). 


Lastly,  mention  must  be  made  of  a  class  of  vessels  which  bear  some  re¬ 
semblance  to  bottles,  in  which  the  upper  part  or  neck  forms  the  imita¬ 
tion  of  a  human  head,  or  of  that  of  an  animal,  the  aperture  being  usually 
placed  at  the  back  part  of  the  head.  In  a  vessel  of  this  description,  taken 
from  a  mound  in  Tennessee,  the  upper  part  bears  a  slight  resemblance  to 
the  head  of  some  animal  (Fig.  296).  Another  specimen  of  this  character 


5  Since  the  above  was  written,  there  has  been  temporarily  deposited  in  the  Museum  by  the  administration 
of  the  Louisville  Public  Library,  a  vessel  of  this  description,  found  in  a  fragmentary  state,  but  restored  so 
as  to  show  its  original  form.  The  specimen  in  question  has  the  shape  of  a  pan  with  slightly  flaring  sides 
and  thickened  rim.  It  measures  twenty-six  inches  in  diameter  at  the  rim,  and  is  eight  inches  deep.  The 
thickness  of  the  bottom  and  sides  does  not  exceed  half  an  inch.  The  outside  of  this  vessel  shows  the 
impressions  of  the  basket  in  which  it  was  formed,  while  the  inside  is  perfectly  smooth.  The  clay  is  of  a 
grayish  color,  and  mixed  with  pounded  shells. 

6  The  natives  of  British  Guiana  manufacture  pottery  of  the  same  form,  as  shown  by  several  specimens  in 
the  collection.  The  double  gourd,  it  appears,  served  as  the  model. 


SMITHSONIAN  AKCHiEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


81 


exhibits  a  human  head,  with  the  nose,  chin,  and  ears  distinctly  marked.  The 
occipital  portion  forms  the  aperture  (Fig.  297,  mound  in  Union  County, 
Kentucky).  Vessels  in  the  shape  of  rude  human  figures  or  of  animals  occur 
not  nnfrequently  in  the  tumuli  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

There  are  in  the  collection  numerous  fragments  of  pottery  from  all  States 
and  Territories  of  the  Union,  and  from  other  part's  of  North  America.  Many 
are  large  enough  to  show  the  original  shape  of  the  vessel  to  which  they  be¬ 
longed,  while  others  serve  to  illustrate  the  different  styles  of  ornamentation  in 
vogue  among  the  aboriginal  potters.  Of  particular  interest  are  the  fragments 
of  pottery  obtained  among  the  ruins  of  ancient  settlements  on  the  Little 
Colorado  and  Gila,  and  from  other  parts  of  the  Western  Territories.  The 
specimens,  for  instance,  collected  during  Lieutenant  Whipple’s  survey  of  those 
districts  are  all  in  the  collection,  together  with  many  other  interesting  objects 
obtained  by  his  party.7  The  sherds  in  question  betoken  a  much  higher  state 
of  the  potter’s  art  than  that  ever  attained  by  the  aborigines  of  that  part 
of  the  United  States  which  lies  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  tribes 
inhabiting  now  the  localities  where  such  fragments  occur,  produce  no  earthen¬ 
ware  of  equal  quality.  The  fractures  of  such  sherds  usually  exhibit  a 
compact  clay  of  a  gray,  yellowish,  or  light-red  color,  and  they  are  coated, 
sometimes  on  both  sides,  with  durable  whitish-gray,  yellow,  or  bright-red 
paint,  forming  a  ground  on  which  parallel  lines,  lozenges,  and  other  (some¬ 
times  very  complicated)  patterns  are  executed  in  black  or  in  other  colors.  In 
many  instances  the  paint  on  these  fragments  appears  as.  a  thin  layer  which 
presents  a  glossy  surface,  and  is  almost  as  hard  as  the  glaze  on  the  clay  vessels 
made  by  whites.  A  number  of  specimens,  however,  exhibit  no  paint,  but 
ornamentation  of  another  character,  in  the  shape  of  raised  or  indented  figures, 
which  betoken,  in  many  instances,  considerable  taste  and  knowledge  of  the  art 
of  decoration.  ”It  may  not  occur  to  every  one,”  says  Thomas  Ewbank  in 
Lieutenant  Whipple’s  report,  ”  that  most,  if  not  all,  the  elements  of  decorative 
art,  as  regards  curved  and  straight  lines,  which  are  supposed  to  have  origi¬ 
nally  occurred  to  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  Greeks,  and  other  advanced  na¬ 
tions  of  the  eastern  hemisphere,  have  been  exhibited  by  the  ancient  occupants 
of  the  western  one.  In  the  relic  just  noticed,8  we  have  the  line  rolled  spirally 
inward  and  outward  —  the  involute  and  evolute.  In  other  samples  of  pottery 
the  guilloche ,  or  curved  fillet,  in  various  forms,  is  met  with;  also,  waving  lines, 
arched,  invected,  engrailed,  radiant,  embattled;  the  trefoil,  cross,  scroll,  and 
numerous  other  initial  forms,  though  less  expanded  and  diversified  than  in  the 
Old  World.”  Generally  speaking,  broken  pottery  answering  more  or  less  the 
description  here  given,  has  been  found  in  the  Territories  of  Arizona,  New 
Mexico,  Utah  and  Colorado. 


Washing- 


7  Described  and  figured  in  Vol.  Ill  of  the  “  Deports  of  Explorations  and  Surveys  to  ascertain  the  most 
practicable  and  economical  Route  for  a  Railroad  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
ton,  1850. 

sFig.  12  on  page  49  of  Whipple’s  l’eport. 


11 


82 


POTTERY. 


It  would  be  impossible  to  mention  here  the  numerous  specimens  of  pottery 
derived  from  Mexico,  where,  as  every  one  knows,  the  aboriginal  ceramic  art 
had  attained  a  far  higher  degree  of  perfection  than  in  the  districts  lying 
northward  of  the  Aztec  empire.  Attention  must  he  drawn,  however,  to  two 


large  vases  of  exquisite  workmanship,  which  were  brought  to  the  United 
States  by  General  Alfred  Gibbs,  after  the  termination  of  the  Mexican  war, 
and  presented,  with  many  other  valuable  Mexican  relics,  to  the  National 
Museum  by  his  mother,  the  late  Mrs.  Gibbs,  of  New  York.  One  of  them 
(Fig.  298),  a  most  elaborate  specimen  of  pottery,  is  a  round  vase  standing  on 
four  curved  feet,  and  narrowing  toward  the  aperture,  which  is  formed  by 
a  short  neck  terminating  in  a  horizontally  projecting  rim,  ornamented  with 
incised  ring-shaped  patterns.  The  vase,  which  measures  thirteen  inches  and 


MEXICAN  VASES  (]). 


a  half  in  height,  is  surrounded  by  ten  figures  in  relief,  representing  females, 
five  of  which  grasp  a  child  with  the  left  arm.  These  five  figures,  which  alter¬ 
nate  with  the  others  not  holding  children,  are  distinguished  from  them  by  a 
more  conspicuous  head-dress.  Above  these  ten  figures  are  to  be  seen,  in  a 
row,  nine  human  heads,  or  masks,  and  between  them,  at  nearly  equal  distances 
from  each  other,  three  lizard-like  designs,  constituting  twelve  figures  in  all. 
The  feet  divide  the  lower  portion  in  four  compartments,  each  of  which  exhibits 
a  figure  of  a  man  flanked  by  two  human  heads,  and  each  foot  is  surmounted 
by  an  animal,  probably  representing  the  coyote,  of  which  only  the  head,  chest, 
and  fore-paws  are  visible. 

The  other  vase  (Fig.  299),  matching  the  one  just  described,  is  a  still  more 
admirable  specimen  of  Mexican  pottery,  and,  as  far  as  the  general  outline 


SMITHSONIAN"  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


83 


is  concerned,  might  readily  be  taken  for  a  vessel  of  Etruscan  or  Greek  origin. 
The  peculiar  ornamentation,  however,  stamps  it  at  once  as  a  Mexican  product 
of  art.  The  vessel  may  be  compared  to  a  pitcher  with  two  handles  standing 
opposite  each  other,  and  with  two  mouths  projecting  between  them.  The 
handles  divide  the  vase  into  two  halves  ornamented  nearly  alike.  Each  handle 
is  formed  by  two  snakes,  crossing  their  tails  and  resting  their  heads  on  the 
rim,  and  the  flat  base  of  the  vessel  is  moulded  in  the  shape  of  a  coiled  serpent. 
A  large  human  head  with  a  prominent  chin  and  protruding  tongue,  wearing  a 
curious  crescent-shaped  head-dress  with  long  lateral  appendages,  constitutes 
the  central  figure  of  each  side  of  the  vase.  To  the  right  and  left  of  this  large 
head  are  lizard-like  designs,  and  next  to  them  near  the  handles,  figures  of 
women.  On  each  side  of  the  head-dress  surmounting  the  large  head  appear 
three  figures,  oue  lizard-shaped,  the  other  in  the  form  of  a  human  head,  and  the 
third  in  that  of  a  crescent-shaped  tab¬ 
let  bearing,  it  has  been  thought,  hie¬ 
roglyphic  signs.  The  four  tablets,  it 
should  be  stated,  exhibit  the  same  char¬ 
acters  (Fig.  300,  natural  size).  The 
lizard-like  figure  also  appears  below  the 
termination  of  each  mouth.  Beneath 
each  handle  the  vase  bears  the  moulding 
of  a  male  figure,  and  the  outer  curve  of 
the  handles  shows,  between  the  bodies  1 
of  the  snakes,  the  relief  design  of  a  fish.  tablet  (-}-). 

The  lizard-like  figure  is  seen  again 

on  each  side  of  the  rim  between  the  serpents’  heads.  The  circumference  of 
the  vase  exhibits,  immediately  above  the  coiled  snake  forming  its  base,  ten 
human  heads  wearing  elaborate  head-dresses  (like  all  imitations  of  the  human 
head  on  this  vase),  and  an  eleventh  figure  of  indistinct  character,  perhaps  in¬ 
tended  for  a  hieroglyphical  tablet.  This  remarkable  vase  is  fourteen  inches 
and  a  quarter  in  height,  and  coated  with  black  paint,  like  the  specimen  previ¬ 
ously  described. 

Another  beautiful  Mexican  vase  of  somewhat  globular  shape  (Fig.  301)  is 
remarkable  for  its  elaborate  raised  ornamentation,  which  consists  of  four 
entwined  snakes  and  four  masks  placed  at  equal  distances  from  each  other. 
The  vessel  stands  on  three  feet  presenting  beautifully  executed  eagles’  heads. 
The  color  of  the  vase  is  a  light  reddish-brown. 

There  are  in  the  collection  many  small  Mexican  vessels,  a  full  description  of 
which  would  exceed  the  limits  of  this  account.  We  only  notice  among  them 
a  small  vessel  tapering  to  a  point  at  the  lower  extremity,  reminding  one  of 
similar  productions  of  ancient  Roman  art  (Fig.  302,  Tezcuco),  and  to  a  well¬ 
shaped  goblet  of  red  ware,  derived  from  Sacrificios  Island,  nearly  opposite 
"Vera  Cruz  (Fig.  303). 

Having  treated  of  North  American  clay  vessels,  we  have  to  notice  the  fab- 


84 


POTTERY. 


rics  of  clay  not  intended  for  culinary  and  other  domestic  uses.  The  North 
American  Indians  frequently  made  their  pipes  of  clay,  moulding  them  into 
various  forms,  sometimes  with  great  ingenuity,  as  previously  stated.  They 
also  manufactured  clay  images,  which  have  been  noticed  in  different  publica¬ 


tions.  Generally  speaking,  such  imitations  of  the  human  form  are  of  a  primi¬ 
tive  and  uncouth  character,  and  inferior  to  corresponding  manufactures  of 
stone.  Much  better  than  the  ordinary  aboriginal  clay  fabrics  of  this  kind  is  a 
head  which,  to  judge  from  the  remaining  part  below  the  neck,  may  have  origi¬ 
nally  formed  the  handle  of  a  vessel.  In  this  head  the  features  are  clearly, 
though  not  correctly,  defined  (Fig.  304),  The  head  is  hollow  and  pierced 


TERRA-COTTA  FIGURE^  Q). 


at  the  occiput  with  a  hole,  which  evidently  has  been  enlarged  after  the  discov¬ 
ery  of  the  relic.  This  specimen  was  found  among  shell-heaps  near  Mobile, 
Alabama.  The  same  locality  has  furnished  a  rude  aboriginal  clay  manufacture 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


85 


in  the  shape  of  a  wolf’s  head,  to  all  appearance  likewise  the  handle  of  a  vessel 
(Fig.  305).  In  this  instance  the  specimen  is  solid,  consisting  of  clay  with  the 
usual  admixture  of  shells. 

The  ancient  Mexicans,  on  the  other  hand,  have  left  numberless  clay  figures 
representing  the  human  form,  which  are,  however,  generally  more  conspicuous 
for  elaborate  details  than  for  correctness  of  the  proportions,  the  heads  being 
often  unnaturally  large.  The  significance  of  many  of  these  figures  is  not 
known,  though  it  may  be  assumed  that  a  large  proportion  of  them  relates  to 
the  mythology  of  the  Aztecs.  Some  may  represent  household  gods,  or  pe- 
nates,  while  others,  perhaps,  were  nothing  else  but  toys.  Most  of  these 
manufactures  are  hollow  and  pierced  with  a  few  holes  for  emitting  the  heated 
air  produced  by  the  baking.  Without  this  precaution  the  objects  would  have 
burst,  owing  to  the  expansive  force  of  the  air. 

One  of  the  most  elaborate  Mexican  figures  of  the  collection  (Fig.  306) 
represents  a  man  seated,  with  the  hands  resting  on  the  knees,  and  bearing  on 
his  back  another  human  figure  so  placed  that  its  head  surmounts  that  of  the 
first,  while  its  hands  press  against  the  forehead  and  its  feet  rest  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  lower  figure.  The  upper  figure  wears  a  rather  low  head- 
di  *ess,  and  the  lower  one  is  profusely  decorated  with  armlets,  wrist-bands  and 
leg-ornaments.  The  most  conspicuous  attributes  of  this  curious  pair  consist 
in  two  serpents  which,  descending  from  the  head-dress  of  the  upper  figure, 
encompass,  as  it  were,  the  group  on  both  sides,  and  rest  their  heads  between 
the  feet  of  the  lower  figure.  In  this  specimen  the  clay  is  well  burned  and 
shows  externally  a  light-brown  paint. 

A  Mexican  image  of  simpler  design  (Fig.  30T),  likewise  represents  a  man 
in  the  attitude  so  often  exhibited  in  Mexican  and  Central  American  terra¬ 
cottas  and  sculptures,  namely,  seated  and  placing  the  hands  on  the  knees. 
The  figure  is  highly  ornamented  and  wears  a  head-dress  of  a  shape  reminding 
one  of  a  terraced  pyramid.  The  color  is  a  pale  red. 

Two  remarkable  figures  of  the  collection,  nearly  identical  in  shape,  though 
somewhat  differing  in  size,  were  presented  to  the  JSTational  Museum  by  the 
family  of  the  late  George  Gibbs.  They  are  of  a  more  uncouth  appearance 
than  the  two  specimens  before  described,  and  represent  squatting  women 
pressing  their  hands  against  the  ears  (Fig.  308).  The  faces  indicate  aged 
individuals  with  prominent  noses  and  somewhat  protruding  tongues.  The 
sexual  parts  are  broadly  marked.  The  peculiar  head-dresses  show,  in  both 
*  instances,  on  the  right  side  a  projection  resembling  a  tuft  of  feathers. 
Both  figures  are  coated  with  a  shining  black  color.  It  Avould  be  interesting 
to  know  the  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  the  manufacture  of  these  two 
almost  identical  images.  Quite  different  in  design  is  a  small  statuette  of  a 
woman  dressed  in  an  ornamented  gown  reaching  to  the  feet,  and  wearing  a 
high  cap  (Fig.  309).  The  hollow  figure  encloses  a  loose  clay  ball,  giving  the 
object  the  character  of  a  rattle.  Rattles  of  clay,  it  is  well  known,  belong  to 
the  common  relics  of  the  ancient  Mexicans. 


8G 


POTTERY. 


The  peculiar  attention  paid  to  snakes  by  the  inhabitants  of  Anahuac  is 
exemplified  in  the  collection  by  a  number  of  mouldings  in  clay  representing 


MEXICAN  STATUETTES. 


those  reptiles  in  various  attitudes.  Several  of  these  specimens  show  a  snake 
coiled  on  the  back  of  a  turtle  and  in  the  act  of  biting  its  head.  In  some  of 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


87 


these  representations  the  lower  part  of  the  turtle’s  neck  exhibits  a  human 
face  (Fig.  310).  This  curious  group 
is  quite  typical,  and  probably  refers  to 
some  tradition  or  to  a  religious  con¬ 
ception  of  the  Aztecs.  A  coiled  snake 
with  uplifted  head  is  likewise  frequently 
met  among  Mexican  terra-cottas,  and  a 
number  of  productions  of  this  character 
can  be  seen  in  the  National  Museum. 

One  of  them  (Fig.  311)  is  the  well- 
executed  figure  of  a  rattle-snake  with 
four  rattles.  Such  specimens  are  usu¬ 
ally  solid,  exhibiting  externally  a  shining 
black  or  other  dark  color. 

Clay  was  employed  by  the  Mexicans 
in  the  manufacture  of  small  mask-shaped 
heads  and  of  various  other  objects,  ei¬ 
ther  of  a  useful  or  ornamental  character. 

Their  whistles  and  rattles  exhibit  an  end¬ 
less  variety  of  forms,  being  made  in  im¬ 
itation  of  the  human  figure,  or  in  the 
shape  of  animals,  or  representing  mon¬ 
strous  creations  of  fancy  which  it  would 
be  difficult  to  define.  Sometimes  the  feet 
of  Mexican  vessels  were  made  hollow 
for  receiving  clay  balls,  insomuch  that  coiled  snakes  in  terra-cotta  (|). 
such  objects  partook  of  the  combined 

characters  of  utensils  and  of  toys.  The  Mexican  clay  spindle-whorls  (mala- 


312 


MEXICAN  SIMNDLE-WHORLS  (}-). 


catl),  of  a  nearly  semi-globular  shape,  are  often  tastefully  ornamented,  as 
shown  by  several  specimens  among  the  Mexican  relics  in  the  Museum  (Figs. 
312  and  313,  Tezcueo). 


VI.  WOOD. 


Among  the  materials  composing  North  American  aboriginal  relics  we  assign 
the  last  place  to  wood,  considering  that  the  occurrence  of  wooden  manufact¬ 
ures  of  early  date  is  extremely  limited.  A  substance  so  much  subject  to  decay 
as  wood  cannot  be  expected  to  resist  physical  influences  for  a  considerable 
length  of  time,  unless  peculiar  circumstances  retard  its  destruction.  Thus  the 
ancient  Swiss  lake-villages  have  yielded  an  abundance  of  wooden  articles, 
owing  to  the  preservative  qualities  of  the  peat  enclosing  them,  which  had 
accumulated  along  the  lake-shores.  The  National  Museum  contains  but  a 
small  number  of  wooden  objects  which  can  be  included  in  the  arclneological 
series,  and  these  were  almost  exclusively  obtained  from  graves  of  the  Califor¬ 
nian  Santa  Barbara  Islands.1  The  articles  apparently  consist  of  cedar  wood, 
which  has  become  very  light,  almost  as  light  as  the  wood  of  the  utensils  ex¬ 
tracted  from  the  sites  of  lacustrine  settlements  in  Switzerland.  Among  these 
Californian  relics  are  rotten  wooden  handles,  some,  indeed,  still  holding  arrow¬ 
head-shaped  knife-blades  of  flint,  .cemented  into  the  wood  by  means  of  asphal- 
tum.  They  resemble  the  Pai-Ute  knives  mentioned  in  the  beginning  of  this 
account  (page  2).  There  is  further  to  be  noticed  a  wooden  bailing-vessel 
with  a  short  handle,  fitting  in  a  rectangular  hole  cut  into  the  vessel  (Fig.  314, 
Santa  Cruz  Island).  A  number  of  well-made  toy  canoes,  the  smallest  of 
which  measures  seven  inches  in  length,  bears  witness  to  the  maritime  propen- 


OBJECTS  OF  WOOD. 


sities  of  those  islanders  (Fig.  315,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  These  specimens  are 
very  interesting,  as  they  undoubtedly  represent  the  shape  of  the  ”  dug-outs  ” 
used  by  the  Southern  Californians.  It  is  known,  however,  that  they  also  em- 


‘The  writer  is  at  this  moment  unable  to  state  whether  these  relics  were  found  associated  with  manufact¬ 
ures  of  Caucasian  origin  or  not. 

(.88) 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


89 


ployed  boats  constructed  of  plants.  Perhaps  the  most  curious  wooden  object 
from  California  is  an  implement  resembling  a  short  sword,  terminating  op- 
posite  the  point  in  a  broad  flat  handle,  inlaid  with  a  kind  of  mosaic  of  Ilnliotis- 
shell  (Fig.  316,  Santa  Cruz  Island).  It  is  stated  that  "sabres  of  hard  wood 
with  edges  that  cut  like  steel  ”  were  among  the  weapons  of  the  California 
Indians  (II.  II.  Bancroft) ;  but  the  object  in  question  is  neither  sharp-edged, 
nor,  as  it  appears,  made  of  very  hard  wood,  and,  being,  moreover,  thin  and 
light,  hardly  could  have  formed  an  efficient  weapon.  Hence  there  is  a  prob¬ 
ability  that  it  represents  either  a  weapon  of  jiarade,  or  some  kind  of  implement 
designed  for  peaceable  purposes.  From  the  same  localities, were  derived  parts 
of  planks  and  other  fragmentary  articles  of  wood,  the  use  of  which  cannot 
now  be  determined. 

By  far  the  most  remarkable  relic  of  vegetable  substance  in  the  collection 
is  a  piece  of  matting  of  split  cane,  fifteen  inches  long  and  about  nine  inches 
wide,  which  was  found  under  very  peculiar  circumstances  on  Petite  Anse 
Island,  near  Yermilion  Bay,  on  the  coast  of  Louisiana.  A  notice  by  Professor 
Henry,  affixed  to  the  specimen  in  question,  runs  thus:  "Petite  Anse  Island  is 
the  locality  of  the  remarkable  mine  of  rock  salt,  discovered  during  the  civil 
war,  and  from  which,  for  a  considerable  period  of  time,  the  Southern  States 
derived  a  great  part  of  their  supply  of  this  article.  The  salt  is  almost  chem¬ 
ically  pure,  and  apparently  inexhaustible  in  quantity,  occurring  in  every  part 
of  the  island  (which  is  almost  five  thousand  acres  in  extent)  at  a  depth  below 
the  surface  of  the  soil  of  fifteen  or  twenty  feet.  The  fragment  of  matting 
was  found  near  the  surface  of  the  salt,  and  about  two  feet  above  it  were  re¬ 
mains  of  tusks  and  bones  of  a  fossil  elephant.  The  peculiar  interest  in  regard 
to  the  specimen  is  in  its  occurrence  in  situ  two  feet  below  the  elephant  re¬ 
mains,  and  about  fourteen  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  soil,  thus  showing  the 
existence  of  man  on  the  island  prior  to  the  deposit  in  the  soil  of  the  fossil 
elephant.  The  material  consists  of  the  outer  bark  of  the  common  southern 
cane  (. Arundinaria  macrosperma) ,  and  has  been  preserved  for  so  long  a  period 
both  by  its  silicious  character  and  the  strongly  saline  condition  of  the  soil.” 
This  specimen,  so  interesting  on  account  of  its  associations,  was  presented  to 
the  National  Museum  by  Mr.  J.  F.  Cleu. 

12 


SUPPLEMENT. 


Since  the  preceding  pages  were  written,  the  National  Museum  has  been 
enriched  with  a  large  number  of  aboriginal  relics,  some  of  them  belonging  to 


an 


STONE  IMPLEMENTS  Q). 

types  never  before  described.  It  would  be  impossible  to  notice  at  present  the 
extensive  additions  to  the  collection,  but  a  few  typical  objects  which  appeared 
of  particular  interest  to  the  writer  may  here  be  mentioned. 

(DO) 


SMITHSONIAN  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COLLECTION. 


91 


Fig.  317. — A  well- wrought  three-sided  perforator  of  brown  flint,  obtained 
with  other  tools  of  the  same  description  from  Santa  Cruz  Island,  California. 

Fig.  0I8.  Another  piercing  tool  of  large  size  and  consisting  of  light-gray 
flint.  It  terminates  in  a  three-sided  point  which  is  rounded  by  wear.  The 
portion  opposite  the  point  is  broad  and  massive.  In  other  specimens  of  this 
class,  all  of  which  were  found  by  Mr.  Paul  Schumacher  on  Santa  Cruz  Island, 
the  thick  part  is  coated  with  asphaltum,  doubtless  for  more  convenient  handling. 

Fig.  319.  —  A  chipped  sickle-shaped  implement  of  light-gray  hornstone, 
probably  used  in  scraping  round  objects  of  wood,  bone,  etc.,  the  inner  curve 
forming  a  strong,  carefully  wrought  edge.  The  specimen,  which  was  found 
in  Ohio,  terminates  in  an  indented  tang  or  stem,  by  which  it  appears  to  have 
been  attached  to  a  handle. 

Fig.  320. — A  remarkable  specimen  of  the  perforated  club-head-shaped  arti¬ 
cles  previously  described.  It  consists  of  greenstone,  and  was  found  in  Cali¬ 
fornia,  like  the  other  objects  of  analogous  form  before  noticed. 

Fig.  321.  —  A  very  singular  tool  made  of  dark  basaltic  rock.  The  working 
part  is  curved,  and  the  upper  side  shows  a  shoulder  on  which  the  end  of  a 
handle  may  have  rested.  The  four  conical  elevations  seen  on  the  lower  side 
appear  to  have  served  for  confining  the  ligatures  by  which  the  handle  was 
connected  with  the  implement.  This  specimen  was  obtained  in  Oregon. 

Fig.  322.  —  One  of  several  objects  made  of  argillite  and  obtained  from 
Massachusetts.  They  are  flattish  and  about  one-third  of  an  inch  thick  at  the 
perforated  rounded  end,  but  become  gradually  thinner  toward  the  tapering 
opposite  extremity.  It  may  be  assumed  that  they  served  as  implements 
though  their  special  use  thus  far  has  not  been  ascertained.  In  some  the  per¬ 
foration  is  wanting,  which  hardly  would  be  the  case  if  these  objects  had  been 
designed  for  other  than  useful  purposes. 

Among  the  objects  lately  obtained  from  Utah  is  a  large  stone  of  somewhat 
compressed  roundish  form,  and  showing  no  other  modification  but  a  groove 
running  across  the  broader  sides.  The  material  of  this  stone,  which  weighs 
fifteen  pounds,  is  vesicular  basalt.  The  writer  has  seen  in  the  State  of  ]STew 
York,  and  elsewhere,  similar  stones  or  boulders  grooved  in  the  same  manner. 
The}r  are  thought  to  have  served  instead  of  anchors. 


a 


. 


APPENDIX  I. 


The  Aboriginal  Modes  of  hafling  Stone  and  Bone  Implements. 

Various  North  American  tribes  still  use,  though  to  a  limited  extent,  weapons  and  tools  of 
stone  and  bone,  hafting  them  according  to  the  methods  in  vogue  among  their  forefathers. 
Such  modern  specimens  illustrate  the  manner  in  which  the  stone  axes,  celts,  adzes,  and  other 
implements  of  earlier  date  were  rendered  serviceable  by  the  addition  of  handles,  and  it  has  been 
thought  proper,  therefore,  to  figui’e  and  describe  here  the  most  characteristic  among  the  numerous 
hafted  weapons  and  tools  preserved  in  the  ethnological  department  of  the  National  Museum. 


HAFTED  STONE  WEAPONS. 


Fig.  323. —  Grooved  greenstone  axe  with  a  hickory  withe  bent  around  the  groove.  The  ends  of 
the  withe,  which  form  the  handle,  are  firmly  bound  with  strips  of  raw-hide  below 
the  stone  head,  near  the  middle,  and  at  the  lower  part  (Dakota  Indians). 

Fig.  324. —  Polished  celt  of  argillite,  chipped  thin  at  the  blunt  part  to  tit  into  the  cleft  end  of  an 
oaken  stick,  where  it  is  secured  by  twisted  cords  of  sinew  (Indians  of  the  Missouri 
Valley). 

% 

Fig.  325. — "War-club,  consisting  of  a  heavy  roundish  stone  firmly  connected  with  a  long  handle. 

Both  the  stone  and  the  handle  are  tightly  cased  in  raw-hide  sewed  together  with 
sinew.  The  end  of  the  handle  is  perforated  for  receiving  a  loop  of  dressed  skin, 
designed  to  pass  around  the  wrist  (Dakota  Indians). 


(93) 


94 


APPENDIX. 


Fig.  32G. —  A  weapon  of  similar  character.  In  this  instance,  however,  the  handle  is  much 
shorter,  and  the  round  stone  head  is  not  firmly  attached  to  its  end,  but  is  merely 
connected  with  it  by  flexible  thongs.  The  raw-hide  covering  of  the  weapon  (includ¬ 
ing  head  and  handle)  consists  of  one  piece  taken  from  the  caudal  portion  of  an  ox, 
a  part  of  whose  tail  forms  an  ornamental  appendage  to  the  handle  (Apaches).  The 
analogy  of  such  weapons  to  the  mediaeval  “morning-stars”  has  been  pointed  out  on 
page  32. 


Fig.  327. —  A  war-club  with  a  well-wrought  and  polished  egg-shaped  head  of  j’ellowish  limestone, 
grooved  around  the  middle  for  receiving  the  handle.  One  end  of  the  latter  is  bent 
like  a  hoop  to  fit  into  the  cavity  of  the  stone,  and  strengthened  by  a  casing  of  raw- 
hide,  which  extends  about  six  inches  below  the  head.  The  part  of  the  ashen  handle 
that  encircles  the  stone  is  ornamented  with  large-headed  brass  nails.  The  extremity 
of  the  handle,  again,  is  enveloped  by  a  tightly  fitting  covering  of  raw-hide,  taken 
from  the  caudal  part  of  a  buffalo.  A  tuft  of  the  animal’s  tail  has  been  retained 
for  the  sake  of  decoration,  and  a  feather  of  the  wild  turkey  is  attached  to  the  hair 
by  means  of  a  narrow  strip  of  dressed  skin  (Blackfeet). 


Fig.  328. —  A  weapon  of  the  same  description.  The  polished  head,  which  consists  of  greenstone, 
is  smaller  and  more  elongated  than  in  the  original  of  Fig.  327.  The  handle  shows 
the  usual  casing  of  raw-hide,  and  is  pierced  at  the  lower  extremity  for  facilitating 
the  attachment  of  a  wrist-strap  (Missouri  River  Valley). 


Fig.  329. —  Dagger-knife,  chiefly  used  as  a  hunting  weapon.  It  consists  of  a  ground  lance-head- 
shaped  blade  of  dark  slate,  inserted  and  riveted  by  means  of  a  wooden  peg  into  a 
barbed  ivory  socket,  which  is  attached  to  a  short  cylindrical  handle  of  pine-wood 
(Natives  of  Nunivak  Island,  Alaska). 


Fig.  330. —  Scabbard  of  the  dagger-knife  just  described.  Formed  by  two  hollowed  pieces  of  pine, 
which  are  held  together  by  a  binding  of  split  spruce-roots. 


Fig.  331. —  Grooved  hammer  of  greenstone,  the  flattened  lower  side  of  which  rests  against  a 
corresponding  flat  part  of  the  curved  handle.  The  head  is  connected  with  the 
handle  by  ligatures  of  raw-hide  (Fort  Simpson,  British  Columbia).  There  are 
similar  hammers  from  the  Northwest  Coast  in  the  collection,  in  wdiich  the  narrower 
part  of  the  stone  is  formed  in  imitation  of  an  animal’s  head.  Other  hammers  or 
mauls  cased  in  raw-hide,  one  of  which  has  been  previously  figured  and  described, 
are  still  in  use  among  various  tribes  (See  Fig.  79  on  page  20). 


Fig.  332. —  Large  adze-shaped  pick  of  whalebone,  attached  by  raw-hide  thongs  to  a  flattish 
massive  pine  handle,  which  is  perforated  at  the  broader  part  for  receiving  the 
ligatures.  The  latter  are  confined  by  notches  in  the  sides  of  the  head  (Mackenzie’s 
River  District). 


APPENDIX. 


95 


Fig.  333. —  Smaller  implement  of  the  same  character.  The  head  of  walrus  ivory  and  the  short 
pine  handle  show  corresponding  perforations,  serving  to  connect  both  parts  by  means 
of  raw-hide  ligatures  (Nunivak  Island). 

Fig.  334. —  Hoe  made  of  the  shoulder-blade  of  a  buffalo,  and  bound  with  raw-liide  thong's  to  the 
shorter  flat  part  of  a  hook-shaped  curved  handle  of  ash-wood.  A  pad  of  dressed 
skin  is  placed  between  the  blade  and  the  corresponding  part  of  the  handle 
(Arickarees,  Fort  Berthold,  Dakota  Territory). 


HAFTED  STONE  AND  BONE  TOOLS. 


Fig.  335. —  Implement  marked  “reaping-hook.”  It  consists  of  the  right  lower  jaw  of  an 

antelope,  around  which  is  bent  a  sapling  forming  the  handle.  Its  two  ends  are 

% 

bound  together  by  a  strip  of  bark.  The  jaw  is  further  secured  to  the  handle  by  a 
thong  of  raw-hide  (Caddoes,  Indian  Territory). 


Fig.  336. —  Small  celt-shaped  adze  of  argillite,  resting  against  a  shoulder  at  the  extremity  of  a 
forked  handle,  the  thinner  branch  of  which,  being  held  in  the  right  hand,  doubtless 
served  to  guide  the  implement,  while  the  thicker  part  of  the  handle  was  grasped  by 
the  left.  The  stone  blade  is  held  in  place  by  a  cord  of  twisted  sinew.  The  tool  is 
said  to  have  been  employed  in  finishing  the  inside  of  canoes,  thus  combining  the 
characters  of  an  adze  and  a  scraper  (Natives  of  Vancouver’s  Island).  Other 
methods  of  hafting  adzes  are  exemplified  by  Figs.  70  and  71  on  page  19. 


96  APPENDIX. 

Fig.  337.— Long  flat  celt-like  chisel  of  argillite,  attached  to  a  roughly  worked  cylindrical  handle 
by  a  thong  of  twisted  raw-liide.  The  handle  is  provided  with  a  shoulder  against 
which  the  stone  rests.  The  tool  evidently  was  used  in  connection  with  a  mallet,  as 
indicated  by  the  battered  upper  end,  which  is,  moreover,  confined  by  a  ring  of 
twisted  spruce-roots  (Vancouver’s  Island). 

Fig.  338. —  Celt-shaped  chisel  of  argillite,  strongly  bound  with  a  strip  of  leather  to  a  carved 
handle  of  peculiar  form  (Vancouver’s  Island). 

Fig.  339. —  Chipped  flint  scraper,  partly  enveloped  in  buckskin,  and  bound  by  means  of  a  raw-hide 
thong  to  a  hook-shaped  ornamented  handle  of  elk-horn  (Mandans). 

Fig.  340. —  Tool  used  in  chipping  stone  arrow-points,  perforators,  etc.  It  consists  of  a  slender 
blunt  piece  of  deer-horn,  bound  with  cotton  cord  to  a  wooden  rod  about  the  thick¬ 
ness  of  an  arrow-shaft  (Indians  of  Nevada  Territory). 


APPENDIX  II. 


System  adopted  in  arranging  the  Smithsonian  Collection  illustrative  of  North 

American  Ethnology.* 


I. 

Desiccated  Bodies. 

Skeletons. 

Skulls. 

Other  Parts  of  Skeletons. 


Man  . 

Casts  of  Indian  Heads  in  plaster,  wax,  and 
papier-mache. 

Photographs,  Drawings,  and  Paintings  of  Abo¬ 
rigines  and  of  Scenes  of  Aboriginal  Life. 


II.  Culture. 


(1.)  Aliment ,  etc. 

A.  Food. 

1.  Mineral  Food. 

Salt. 

Clay  (mixed  with  food). 

2.  Vegetable  Food. 

a.  Unprepared. 

Roots. 

Bark. 

Buds. 

Flowers. 

Fruits. 

Seeds. 

b.  Prepared. 

Sugar. 

Preserved  Fruits. 

Meal. 

Mush. 

Bread  or  Cake. 

3.  Animal  Food. 

Dried  and  smoked  Meat  of  Mam¬ 
mals,  Birds  and  Reptiles. 
Dried  and  smoked  Fish. 

Dried  Fish-eggs. 

Roasted  and  dried  Insects  and 
Worms. 


B.  Drink. 

1.  Decoctions. 

Teas,  etc. 

2.  Fermented  Drinks. 

Cider,  Wine  and  Liquor. 

C.  Narcotics. 

Tobacco  and  its  Substitutes. 

D.  Medicines. 

1.  Mineral  Medicines. 
Earths,  etc. 

2.  Vegetable  Medicines. 
Herbs. 

Roots. 

Buds. 

Flowers. 

Seeds. 

3.  Animal  Medicines. 
Pulverized  Bones,  etc. 

(2.)  Habitations. 

A.  Skin  Lodges. 

B.  Models  of  Dwellings. 
Shelters. 

Skin  Lodges. 

Yourts. 

Huts  (of  bark,  grass,  etc.). 
Wooden  Houses. 


*  In  this  classification  Professor  O.  T.  Mason’s  pamphlet,  entitled  “  Ethnological  Directions  relative  to  the  Indian  Tribes  of 
the  United  States  ”  (Washington,  1875),  has  been  used  to  some  extent. 

13 


(97) 


98 


APPENDIX. 


C.  Appurtenances. 

Sweat-houses  (models). 

Totem-posts  (originals  and  models). 
Gable-ornaments  (carved) . 

Locks  (wooden). 

(3.)  Furniture. 

Mats  (of  bark,  grass,  flax,  etc.). 
Screens. 

Hammocks. 

Bed-coverings. 

Head-rests  (Iloopa  Indians,  Cali¬ 
fornia). 

Cradles. 

Cradle-boards. 

Chairs. 

Stools. 

W  ashing-vessels. 

Tubs. 

Pails. 

Boxes. 

Chests. 

Lamps. 

Brooms. 

Fly-brushes. 

(4.)  Vessels  and  other  Utensils  of  Household 
Use. 

A.  Raw  Material. 

Stone. 

Cla)\ 

Roots. 

Grass. 

Rushes. 

Osiers. 

Splints. 

Wood. 

Horn. 

Skin. 

Membrane. 

Dyes  and  Cements  (for  baskets,  etc.). 

B.  Earthenware. 

Cooking-vessels. 

Ollas. 

Spherical  Jars. 

Small-necked  Jars. 

Canteens. 

Pitchers. 

Dishes. 

1  rays. 

Bowls. 

Cups. 

Ladles. 

Spoons. 

Ornamental  Vessels. 


C.  Carved  Horn  and  Wooden-ware. 
Four-sided  Vessels. 

Trays. 

Dishes. 

Bowls. 

Cups. 

Dippers. 

Spoons. 

Ladles. 

Stirring-sticks. 

D.  Carved  Stone-ware. 

Plates. 

Trays. 

Dishes. 

Bowls. 

Cups. 

E.  Water-tight  and  ordinary  Basket- 

work. 

Cups. 

Bowls. 

Flasks. 

Carrying-bottles. 

Baskets  of  various  forms. 

F.  Bark  Vessels. 

Trays. 

Bowls. 

Pails. 

G.  Gourd  Vessels. 

Cups. 

Bowls. 

Carrying-bottles. 

H.  Skin  and  Bladder  Bottles. 

(5.)  Articles  sewing  in  the  Use  of  Narcotics. 
Pipes. 

Tobacco-pouches. 

Cigar-cases. 

Plates  for  cutting  Tobacco. 
Snuff-grinders. 

Snuff-scrapers. 

Snuff-boxes. 

Snuff-tubes. 

(G.)  Receptacles  used  in  Transportation. 

A.  On  Foot. 

Pouches. 

Burden-straps. 

Burden-nets. 

Burden-baskets. 

B.  With  Beasts  of  Burden. 

Bags. 

Raw-hide  Cases. 


APPENDIX. 


99 


(7.)  Clothing. 

A.  Raw  Material. 

Fur. 

Raw-liide. 

Wool. 

Hair. 

Vegetable  Fibre. 

B.  Complete  Suits  (in  part  exhibited 

on  lay-figures). 

C.  Head-clothing. 

Hats. 

Caps. 

Hoods. 

Head-scarfs. 

D.  Body-clothing. 

Robes. 

Blankets. 

Mantles. 

Capes. 

Shirts. 

Tunics. 

Coats. 

Clouts. 

Aprons. 

Skirts. 

E.  Hand-clothing. 

Mittens. 

Gloves. 

F.  Leg  and  Foot-clothing. 

Sandals. 

Moccasins. 

Shoes. 

Boots. 

Socks. 

Stockings. 

Leggins. 

Garters. 

G.  Parts  of  Dress. 

Bands. 

Belts. 

(8.)  Personal  Adornment. 

A.  Head-ornaments. 

Wigs. 

Chignons. 

Hair-pins. 

Tucking-combs. 

Head-bands. 

Feather  Head-ornaments. 

Labrets. 

Nose-ornaments. 

Ear-ornaments. 


B.  Neck-ornaments. 

Necklaces. 

Neck-bands. 

Collars. 

C.  Breast  and  Body-ornaments. 
Gorgets. 

Ornamental  Girdles. 

D.  Limb-ornaments. 

Rings. 

Bracelets. 

Armlets. 

Anklets. 

E.  Toilet  Articles. 

Substitutes  for  Soap. 

Paints  (mostly  mineral). 
(Paint-mortars). 

Spatulae  (for  face-painting). 
Hair-powder. 

Hair-dye. 

Combs. 

Head-scratchers. 

Tweezers  for  removing  the  hair. 
Mirrors. 

(9.)  Implements  for  General  Use ,  for  War  ' 
and  the  Chase ,  and  for  special  Crafts 
and  Occupations. 

A.  Implements  for  General  Use. 

1.  For  Striking. 

Hammers  and  Mauls. 

2.  For  Cutting,  Sawing,  Perforat¬ 

ing,  etc. 

Knives  of  various  forms. 
Hatchets. 

Adzes. 

Chisels. 

Gouges. 

Wedges. 

Scrapers. 

Skinning  Implements. 

Saws. 

Drills. 

Awls. 

Cutting-blocks. 

Tool-boards. 

(Tool-boxes). 

(Whet-stones). 

B.  Implements  for  War  and  the  Chase. 

1.  Striking  Weapons. 

War-clubs  (with  or  without 
metallic  points  or  stone 
weights). 

Tomahawks. 


100 


APPENDIX. 


2.  Throwing  Weapons. 

Boomerangs  (Moquis,  etc.). 
Bolas. 

3.  Thrusting  Weapons. 

Knives. 

Daggers. 

Swords. 

Lances. 

4.  Projectile  Weapons  and  Appur¬ 

tenances. 

Arrows. 

Bows. 

Quivers. 

Wrist-guards. 

Harpoons  and  Throwing-boards. 
Slings. 

5.  Defensive  Weapons. 

Shields. 

Helmets. 

Visors, 

Body-armour. 

C.  Implements  for  Special  Crafts  and 
Occupations. 

1.  Implements  for  Hunting  other 

than  Weapons. 

Snares  and  Traps, 

Nets. 

Hooks  for  catching  small  Ani¬ 
mals. 

Decoys. 

2.  Implements  for  Fishing  other 

than  Weapons. 

Hooks  and  Lines. 

Sinkers  and  Floats. 

Nets. 

Traps. 

3.  Implements  and  Utensils  used 

in  Gathering  and  Manufac¬ 
turing  Food. 

Root-diggers, 

Gathering  and  Winnowing-trays. 
Mortars  and  Pestles  (of  wood 
and  stone). 

Stone  Troughs  or  Slabs  with 
Rubbing-stones. 

4.  Agricultural  Implements. 

Spuds. 

Hoes. 

Rakes. 

Reaping-hooks. 


5.  Implements  for  Fire-making. 
Fire-sticks  and  Drills. 

Flint  with  Steel  and  Pyrites. 
Moss. 

Punk. 

Tinder. 

Slow-matches. 

Fire-nests. 

Fire-bags. 

6.  Implements  for  Arrow-making. 
Chipping-tools. 

Shaft-grinders. 

Shaft-straighteners. 

Glue-sticks. 

7.  Implements  for  making  Pottery. 
Paddles. 

Smoothing-stones. 

8.  Implements  for  Twisting,  Spin¬ 

ning,  Weaving,  Sewing  and 
Embroidery. 

Fibre-twisters. 

Spindle-whorls. 

Reels. 

Knitting-needles. 

Looms  with  Woof-sticks  and 
Shuttles. 

Awls. 

Needles. 

Needle-cases. 

9.  Implements  for  Basket-making. 
Plaiting-tools. 

10.  Implements  for  working  Skins. 
Scrapers. 

Skin-softeners. 

Burnishers. 

Crimping-tools. 

11.  Implements  for  Carving. 

Knives. 

Gouges. 

12.  Implements  for  Painting  (includ¬ 

ing  Paints). 

Bristles. 

Paint-sticks. 

Brushes. 

Rubbing-stumps. 

(Paints). 

Means  of  Locomotion  and  Transporta¬ 
tion. 

A.  By  Land. 

1 .  Traveling  on  Foot. 

Ice-creepers. 

Snow-shoes. 


(10.) 


APPENDIX. 


101 


2.  Conveyances,  etc. 

Saddles. 

Bridles. 

Halters. 

Stirrups. 

Spurs. 

Foot-mufflers. 

Dog-harnesses. 

Reindeer-harnesses. 

Sleds. 

Sleighs. 

B.  By  Water. 

Balsas. 

Dug-outs. 

Bark  Canoes. 

Bull-hide  Boats. 

Kayaks. 

Oomiaks. 

Pushing-sticks. 

Paddles. 

Oars. 

Bailing-vessels, 

Spear -rests. 

(11.)  Games  and  Pastimes, 

A.  Gambling  Implements, 

Pairs  of  Bones  and  Sticks, 
Bundles  of  Sticks. 

Discs. 

Dice. 

Ivory  Blocks  and  Catching-sticks. 
Cards. 

Chess. 

B.  Dancing. 

Plumes. 

Wooden  Masks  and  Head-dresses. 
Buffalo-head  Masks, 

Head-shields. 

Hip-ornaments, 

Rattles. 

Batons. 

Spears. 

Scalps. 

C.  Athletic  Exercises, 

Rackets, 

Sticks, 

Poles. 

Balls. 

Rings. 

Boundary-sticks. 

I).  Children’s  Sports  and  Tovs, 

Dolls. 

Whirligigs. 


Tops. 

Miscellaneous  To}rs. 

(12.)  Music. 

A.  Instruments  for  Beating  and  Shak¬ 

ing. 

Drums. 

Sounding-bars. 

Rattles. 

Clappers. 

B.  Rubbing  and  Stringed  Instruments. 
Notched  Sticks. 

Cane  Harps. 

Cane  Fiddles. 

C.  Wind  Instruments. 

Whistles. 

Fifes, 

Flutes, 

Trumpets, 

Horns. 

D.  Whizzers, 

(13.)  Art. 

A.  Pictorial  Representations  and  orna¬ 

mental  Designs  on  Wood,  Bark, 
Bone,  Horn,  Ivory,  dressed 
Skin  and  Leather, 

B.  Carvings  in  Stone,  Wood,  Horn, 

Bone  and  Ivory. 

C.  Embroidery  and  other  ornamental 

Work  with  Quills,  colored 
Threads,  Hair,  Feathers,  and 
Beads. 

(14.)  Enumeration ,  etc. 

Census-sticks. 

Dunning-sticks. 

(15.)  Objects  relating  to  Superstitions. 

Idols, 

Charms. 

Medicines.” 

Medicine-bags. 

Medicine-boxes. 

Batons. 

Rattles. 

Drums, 

(1G.)  Objects  relating  to  Funeral  Rites  and 
Burials. 

Mourning-yokes. 

Mourning-bracelets, 

Dead-masks. 

Burial-frames, 


9 


. 


INDEX 


Adair,  28,  30,  38,  74. 

Adzes,  with  handles,  19. 

Alaska,  copper  articles  from,  62. 
Appendix  I.,  93. 

Appendix  II.,  97. 

Archteological  series,  1. 

Armlets  of  copper,  61. 

Arrow-heads,  mostly  small,  2. 

their  abundance,  8. 
are  still  manufactured,  8. 

**  '  different  shapes  of,  9, 10. 

Arundinaria  macrospertna,  89. 

Axes,  grooved,  19,  20. 

Baegert,  44. 

Bancroft,  Mr.  II.  H.,  31,  70,  89. 

Bartram,  46. 

Beads  of  copper,  61. 

“  shell,  68. 

“  stone,  51. 

Blackmore  Museum,  England,  45. 
Boat-shaped  articles,  32,  33. 

Bone  and  horn,  63. 

Bowls  of  stone,  37. 

Calumet-pipes,  48. 

Carvings  of  birds,  etc.  upon  pipe-bowls, 
46,  47. 

Casts  of  pipes,  45. 

“  remarkable  relics,  26. 

Catlin,  Mr.,  28,  75. 

Catlinite,  or  red  pipe-stone,  50,  51. 

Celts  of  jade  in  Mexico,  17. 

Celts  or  Wedges,  17. 

Chibouc  of  the  Turks,  51. 

Chisels,  18. 

Chung-kee,  an  Indian  game,  28. 

Church,  Prof.  A.  H.,  45. 

Clams  as  food,  70. 

Clarke,  Mr.,  28. 

Classification  of  the  archeological  series, 
3. 

Claws  as  ornaments,  64. 

Clay  images,  84,  85. 

Clay,  manufactures  of,  73. 

“  vessels  of,  77,  78,  79,  80. 

Clay  pipes,  84. 

Cleu,  Mr.  J.  F.,  89. 

Club-head-shaped  stones,  31. 

Coiled  snakes  in  terra-cotta,  87. 
Collections  from  Porto  Rico,  4. 

Columelle  of  shells,  68. 

Contents,  V. 

Cooking  vessels,  globular,  37. 

Copper,  59. 

Copper  articles  from  Alaska,  62. 

Copper  harpoon-heads,  63. 

Copper  pipes,  45. 

Coreal,  44. 

Cups,  hollowed  out  from  the  vertebra;  of 
cetaceans,  63. 

Cushing,  Mr.  F.  II..  63. 

Cutting  and  sawing  implements,  13. 
Cutting  tools,  24.  25. 

“  different  shapes  of,  14. 


Dali,  Mr.  W.  H.,  43. 

Davis,  Dr.  E.  H.,  54. 

Difficulties  in  determining  the  real  char¬ 
acter  of  stone  implements,  2. 

Discoidal  stones,  28,  29. 

Drilled  ceremonial  weapons,  23. 

Drilling  in  stone,  54. 

Drinking  cups  made  of  shells,  66. 
Dug-outs,  88. 

Dumont,  74. 

Du  Pratz,  28,  30,  74. 

Egg-shaped  stones,  32. 

Epiphysis,  pierced  for  ornament,  65. 
Ethnological  series,  1. 

Ethnology,  North  American,  97. 

Ewbank,  Mr.  Thomas,  81. 

Fifes  of  bones,  63. 

Fish-hooks  of  bone,  63. 

Flakes  of  flint,  obsidian,  etc.,  of  different 
shapes,  8. 

Flint  knives,  hafted,  2. 

Foot-tracks,  sculptured,  57. 

Foster,  Mr.  J.  W.,  59. 

Gibbs,  Gen.  Alfred,  82. 

Gibbs,  Mr.  Geo.,  85. 

Gibbs,  Mrs.,  82. 

Globular  cooking  vessels,  37. 

Gorgets  made  of  shells,  71,  72. 

Gouges  and  adzes,  18, 19. 

Gold  in  grains,  60. 

Greenstone,  material  for  implements,  3. 
Grinding  and  polishing  tools,  34,  35. 

Hafted  stone  and  bone  tools,  95. 

Hafted  stone  weapons,  93. 

Hammer-heads,  grooved,  21 
Ilammer-stones,  22. 

Harpoon-heads  of  bone,  63. 

Henry,  Prof.,  89. 

Hunter,  Mr.,  74,  75. 

Ice-chisel  from  Unalaska,  18. 

Implements  and  ornaments  of  bone,  64. 

“  of  copper,  59,  60,  61. 

“  of  stone 

dagger-shaped,  14, 15. 
leaf-shaped,  15. 
wedge  or  celt-shaped,  17. 
Indian  tools  for  making  stone  arrow¬ 
heads,  etc.,  22. 

Introduction,  1. 

Jefferson,  President  Thomas,  56. 

Jones,  Col.  Chas.  C.,  26,  32,  41,  -71. 

Jones,  Dr.  Joseph,  26. 

Juet,  Robert,  45, 59. 

Knight  of  Elvas,  59. 

Kohl,  Mr.,  44. 

Lake  Superior,  ancient  mining  on  the 
shores  of,  59. 


Lapis  ollaris,  36. 

Lartet  and  Christy,  Messrs.,  63. 

Latimer,  Mr.  George,  4. 

Lawson,  28. 

Lewis  and  Clarke,  Messrs.,  28. 

Loskiel,  74. 

Mason,  Prof.  O.  T.,  97. 

Matting  of  split  cane,  89. 

Metate,  Mexican,  40. 

Mexican  carvings,  56. 

“  celts  of  jade,  17. 

“  clay  figures,  85. 

“  knives,  3 

“  pottery,  superior,  76. 

“  spindle-whorls,  87. 

“  statuettes,  86. 

“  vases.  82,  84. 

Modes  of  hafting  stone  and  bone  imple¬ 
ments,  93. 

“  manufacturing  pottery,  74,  75. 
Morgan,  Mr.  L.  II.,  39. 

Mortars  of  stone  and  wood,  38,  39. 
Motolinia,  8. 

Mullers,  42. 

Murray,  Mr.,  28. 

Necklaces  of  claws,  64. 

Needles  of  bone,  63. 

Neolithic  period,  7. 

Net-sinkers,  27,  28. 

Nilsson,  Prof.,  18. 

Notches  in  pendants,  probably  denoting 
enumeration,  53. 

Nut-stones,  40,  41. 

Objects  of  wood,  88. 

Obsidian  points  for  arrows,  3. 
Ornamented  pestles,  43. 

Ornaments,  26,  51,  52. 

Pai-Utes,  2,  8. 

Paint-mortars,  40,  41. 

Paleolithic  period,  7. 

Pebbles,  pierced  for  ornament,  52. 
Pendants  and  sinkers,  26.  27. 

Perforations  made  by  drilling,  24. 
Perforators,  different  shapes  of,  12,  13. 
Perforators  of  bone,  63. 

“  stone,  12. 

Perry’s  Expedition  to  Japan,  5. 

Pestles,  41,  42. 

“  for  preparing  food,  43. 

Pierced  tablets,  32,  33. 

Pin-shaped  articles  made  of  marine  uni¬ 
valves,  68. 

Pipes,  45,  47,  49. 

Plates  of  stone,  37. 

Plummets,  26. 

Porto  Rico,  collections  from,  4. 

Potstone,  material  for  vessels,  36. 

Pottery,  73. 

“  painted  and  decorated,  75,  81. 
Powell,  Major  J.  W.,  2,  40. 


104 


INDEX 


Rattles  made  of  shells,  68. 

“  of  clay,  85. 

Relics,  prehistoric,  from  Europe,  4. 

“  of  bone  and  horn  from  California 
and  New  York,  63. 

Santa  Barbara  Islands,  31,  63,  88. 
Sehoolcralt,  Mr.,  33,  43. 

Schumacher,  Mr.  Raul,  31, 37, 51,  63, 70, 72, 
91. 

Scraper-like  implements,  25,26. 

Scrapers,  different  shapes  of,  13. 

“  with  handles,  13. 

Sculptures,  51,  55,  57. 

Serpentine,  material  for  vessels,  37. 
Shell-money,  70. 

Shells  used  for  ornament,  51,  52,  66,  69. 
Shells,  utensils  of,  66,  67. 

Silver,  traces  of,  60. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  59. 

Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge, 
45. 

Spade-like  implements,  25, 26. 
Spear-heads,  different  shapes  of,  11, 12. 

“  resemble  large  arrow-heads, 

10. 

Spear  heads,  so-called,  used  with  handles, 

10. 

Specimens  from  Central  and  South  Amer¬ 
ica,  4. 

Spindle-whorls,  Mexican,  87. 

Squier,  Mr.  E.  G.,  4. 


Squier  &  Davis,  Messrs.,  45,  46,  48. 
Statuettes,  Mexican,  86. 

Stevens.  Mr.  E.  T.,  45. 

Stone  as  raw  material,  7. 

“  flaked  and  chipped,  7. 

“  implements,  90. 

“  “  their  use,  often  doubt¬ 

ful,  2. 

Stone  knives  for  cutting  leather,  2. 

Stone,  pecked,  ground  and  polished,  17. 
Stone  plates,  37. 

“  vessels,  36. 

Stones,  club-head-shaped,  31. 

“  discoidal,  used  in  Indian  games, 
28,  29. 

Stones,  egg-shaped,  32. 

“  used  in  grinding  and  polishing, 
34,  35. 

Striped  slate,  material  for  ornaments,  53. 
System  adopted  in  arranging  the  Smith¬ 
sonian  collection  relating  to  North 
American  Ethnology,  97. 

Tablets,  pierced,  32,  33. 

Teeth,  perforated  for  ornaments,  64. 
Terra-cotta  figures,  84. 

Tilhuggersteene,  22. 

Tissues  and  implements  from  China  and 
Japan,  5. 

Tomahawks,  21. 

Tools  used  by  modern  Indians,  22. 
Torquemada,  8. 


Toy  canoes,  88. 

Trichecus  mnnatus,  46. 

Tubes,  43.  44. 

“  ornaments  or  amulets,  43. 

Tylor.  Mr.  E.  B.,  8. 

Typical  objects  only  described,  5. 

Unalaska,  ice-chisel  from,  18. 

Utensils  made  of  shells,  67. 

Vases,  Mexican,  82,  84. 

Venegas,  44. 

Verazzano,  59. 

Vessels  of  clay  for  culinary  purposes,  73. 
“  stone,  36. 

IVampum-beads,  68. 

Weapons  of  parade,  drilled,  23,  24. 
Weapons,  utensils,  etc.  from  Asia,  Africa, 
Australia,  etc.,  4. 

Wedges  or  Celts,  17. 

Weights  for  fishing-lines,  26. 

Whipple,  Lieut.,  81. 

Whistles  of  bird-bones,  63. 
clay,  85. 

Whittlesey,  Mr.  Charles,  59. 

Wilkes,  Capt.,  5. 

Williams,  Roger,  62,  68,  70. 

Wood,  manufactures  of,  88. 

Wyman,  Prof.  Jeffries,  71. 

Yarrow,  Dr.  H.  C.,  31. 


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